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Brazil Announces Five New Nature Reserves for Amazonia
Jun 16th
Scotsman.com News – Latest News – Brazil Announces Five New Nature Reserves for Amazonia.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the creation of five new nature reserves in the Amazon region during a ceremony today to commemorate International Biodiversity Day.
The new reserves cover 261,252 hectares (645,554 acres). Four of the reserves are in coastal areas of the Amazon state of Para and the other is deep in the rainforest in the same state.
Brazil has several types of nature reserves, ranging from national parks, which allow tourism, to biological reserves that are only open to scientists for research. The new reserves will seek to protect the forest, but allow local populations access to harvest fruits and nuts and to tap rubber.
The reserves along the coasts are intended to protect the small fishing communities in the area.
Silva’s announcement comes two days after the Brazilian government announced that in the Amazon suffered the second worst rate of deforestation ever last year, with an area the size of six football fields disappearing every minute.
The environment ministry also announced the government had surpassed its goal of protecting over 9 million hectares (22.24 million acres) of Amazon rainforest this year.
The ministry said that goal was surpassed with the declaration of the 3.8 million hectare (9.39 million acre) Terra do Meio reserve and the 445,000 hectare (1,099,595 acre) Serra do Pardo national park, bringing the total to just over 9 million hectares (22.24 million acres).
The two reserves were hastily declared in February following the killing of American nun and rainforest defender Dorothy Stang, in Para state.
Since 2002, the government has placed 16 million hectares (39.54 million acres) of Amazon rainforest under protection in parks, reserves and Indian reservations, the ministry said.
While environmentalists applauded the creation of the protected areas, many worry that they will not be enforced because the government agency charged with protecting them is seriously underfunded and understaffed.
Brazil’s rainforest is as big as western Europe and covers 60% of the country’s territory. Experts say as much as 20% of its 1.6 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometres has already been destroyed by development, logging and farming.
Governor of Mato Grosso blamed for “rape of rainforest”
Jun 16th
Maggi protests report blaming him for "rape of rainforest" – News – AE-Brazil.
Governor of Mato Grosso and "Soy King" Blairo Maggi (Popular Socialist Party – PPS) refuted a report in the Friday edition of British daily "The Independent" calling him the man behind "the rape of the rainforest".
"I think the accusation is shocking, an exaggeration and disrespectful", he said.
"I can personally say that my company (Grupo Amaggi) has carried out no deforestation over the past few years. I think they (the newspapers) were heavy handed and they exaggerated. We’re going to defend ourselves and make a formal protest to these newspapers," he said.
Maggi said that his state is being attacked because its economy has grown at a rate of 8% annually.
He added that he had not been sought out by the Independent, and accused Greenpeace of carrying out a campaign against his state in Europe and the U.S..
"It’s an exaggeration. This is not what’s going on. Sensationalist newspapers are doing this to sell their stories," he claimed.
Maggi added that the Mato Grosso government does not take responsibility for deforestation of the Amazon, only for what takes place in the state itself."It should be made clear that areas of under 300 hectares are the responsibility of Ibama (the Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency), a federal government inspection body," said Maggi.
"In 2004, areas of up to 300 hectares and therefore the responsibility of Ibama, saw deforestation on a total of 748,000 hectares", he added.
As for areas of over 300 hectares, which are the responsibility of the Mato Grosso government, 890,000 hectares were deforested. Of this total 400,000 hectares were deforested legally, that is, with correct licensing. The remaining 490,000 hectares were illegally cleared and were appropriately fined by the Mato Grosso government, he went on.
These fines totaled R$ 77 million (approximately $30 million) in 2004, with 94.8% of illegal clearing activity thus fined.
Maggi went on to say that when he became state governor in 2003 only 1,587 rural properties had environmental licensing and that over 2003 to 2005 4,793 properties received licenses. He said this means a greater monitoring and control of clearances.
At present 15 million hectares have this licensing, of which 11.1 million hectares were granted by the Maggi government.
Maggi said in April that he will run for reelection in 2006 and that he is available to run as President of Brazil in 2010.
Maggi is the single largest soy producer in the world.
Brazil Greens quit govt over Amazon destruction
Jun 16th
Reuters AlertNet – Brazil Greens quit govt over Amazon destruction.
BRASILIA, Brazil, May 19 (Reuters) – Legislators for Brazil’s small Green Party quit the government on Thursday to protest its failure to prevent a near-record rise in destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
The party said Wednesday’s government announcement that Amazon deforestation hit its second-highest level last year was the final straw after what it called a string of disastrous environmental policies by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"This government represents one of the biggest-ever reversals for Brazilian environmental policy," said Jovino Candido, one of seven Green Party members in the lower House of Deputies who withdrew support from the ruling coalition in Congress.
The Green Party has only a tiny fraction of the 513 deputies in the lower house, but its departure marked another political setback for Lula as he tries to rebuild support after a string of defeats.
Brazilian Culture Minister Gilberto Gil, a member of the Green Party, was in Cannes, France and not immediately available to comment on his plans, a spokesman said.
Lula entered office in 2003 on high hopes he would control use of threatened Amazon areas and balance needs for environmental protection with economic growth.
After 28 months in office environmentalists say he has done more to promote dams, roads and farming in the Amazon than halt destruction of the world’s largest rainforest, which is home to up to 30 percent of the world’s plant and animal species.
Environmentalists have applauded Lula’s efforts to create vast Amazon reserves to promote sustainable use of timber and land resources but they have criticized his inability to enforce environmental laws protecting the vast jungle.
Illegal loggers, land speculators and farmers deforested an area of rainforest larger than the U.S. state of New Jersey between 2003 and 2004. Brazil’s soy and beef farmers often move into deforested areas, driven by high global prices and booming demand for their exports.
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