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WWF-Brazil News
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- Subject: WWF-Brazil News
- From: "Green Peacemaker" <fabioq8@libero.it>
- Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 23:12:40 +0200
NEWS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brazilian
government trades forests for the approval of the national minimum salary in the
Congress
Brasília – A Commission of the Brazilian
Congress has approved today a law draft that allows a massive occupation and use
of the Amazonian and Cerrado savannah areas in the country. By the actual Forest
Code - a group of laws to regulate the occupation and use of the nation’s forest
- every single property owner in the Amazon region must maintain 80% of its
forests cover on their land and 50% for the Cerrado area. The new proposal drops
the requirement to 50% for the Amazon region and 20% for the Cerrado. The bill
which is due to be voted by the full Congress within days has been considered a
step back in the national effort to preserve its forests.
The new draft, written by MP Moacyr Micheletto
(PMDB-PR), represents the interests of the Brazilian big land owners who
consider the actual Forest Code an obstacle for the "development" of the Amazon
region. The government has previously presented a draft prepared by the CONAMA -
the highest official environment council, with the support of environmental NGOs
but its representatives at the Congress have given up voting it at last minute.
Only 14 MPs have voted in the Congress’s Commission.
There is evidence that the change in the
government attitude was linked to its effort to get enough votes to approve the
national minimum salary (R$ 151,00 or US$ 83,00) due to be voted later today
(Wednesday) by the Congress. The land owners’ representatives at the Congress
(Bancada Ruralista) count about 170 MPs. Mr. Micheletto’s proposal has totally
ignored the draft presented by the CONAMA and agreed by significant sectors of
the Brazilian society such as national and regional government representatives,
industry, rural workers and non-governmental organisations. Mr. Micheletto has
reject the CONAMA’s proposal and introduced many alterations in the original
text reflecting the interests of the land owners, who argue that 80% requirement
restrict the economic activities in the Amazon region. "This is not true as the
exploitation of natural resources can be done in these forest reserves,
including logging exploitation and 2/3 of the forest is not suitable for
agriculture", says the general secretary of the WWF-Brasil, Garo
Batmanian.
"If the Brazilian Congress approves the land
owners’ proposal, Brazil will again register record of deforestation", says Mr.
Batmanian. Since 1996 the occupation and use of the forests areas have been
regulated by a series of temporary laws (Medidas Provisórias) established by the
government when the deforestation reached a record level the year before –
30,000 sq Km. Last year’s numbers published recently is around 17,000 sq
Km.
The polemic draft of the new Forest Code was
voted today thanks to an effort made by the big land owners representatives
eager to negotiate its approval in exchange of the approval of national minimum
salary. "It is just lamentable that the environment should again be used as an
exchange currency in economic negotiations", says Mr. Batmanian. The Brazilian
Minister for the Environment, José Sarney Filho, has also said that "it is
grievous that the most conservative sectors of the land owners have
intentionally used this delicate national moment (the vote of the minimum
salary) to approve Mr. Micheletto’s proposal".
The law draft will be voted in the full Congress
where the MPs identified with the protection of the environment is minority. The
only way to stop the land owners attempt against the environment is to mobilise
the public opinion. WWF and other Brazilian non-governmental organisations will
carry on with the campaign "SOS FORESTS" asking for support to stop the Forest
Code final vote in the Brazilian Congress unless the CONAMA recommendations are
re-inserted.