ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Activists Block New Forestry Code

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 9 1999 (IPS) - Fast work by 189 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in mobilising support led the Brazilian Congress to postpone a vote on a new forestry code which environmentalists warn would lead to an increase in deforestation.

If approved, the new code, drawn up quickly by a parliamentary commission, would represent a setback in conservation of Brazil’s forests, reducing the proportion of jungle to be preserved in large rural properties.

Under pressure from the NGOs and the Environment Ministry, the bicameral commission discussing the matter decided late Tuesday to put off the vote on a proposal submitted by Deputy Moacier Micheletto until March.

Due to that decision, the plenary session of Congress was blocked from discussing the initiative Wednesday, as originally planned.

“This was a triumph by civil society,” said Garo Batmanian, executive-director of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil.

Brazil’s forestry code dates back to 1965, and there is broad agreement among all sectors – from government to environmentalists to landholders – that it is obsolete.

The code was amended in 1996 after it was announced that around 29,000 square kms of Amazon jungle had been lost in 1995, which sparked a repeat of the wave of protests around the world which put Brazil on the bench in the late 1980s, when huge forest fires swept through the Amazon region.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s modifications of the law increased the proportion of forest to be conserved on large rural properties in the Amazon from 50 to 80 percent, and from 20 to 50 percent in the rest of the country.

But the initiative was passed by means of a Provisional Measure, a presidential decree that immediately takes effect, but only for a month. Without the necessary support in parliament to make the initiative a permanent law, Cardoso reissued the decree every month – 40 times in a row so far.

While the debates dragged out in the National Council on the Environment, Deputy Micheletto presented another proposal, reducing the percentage of areas to be preserved as set by Cardoso.

The draft law submitted by Micheletto also encroaches on the environment in other aspects, such as allowing autochthonous forests to be replaced with non-native species, and reducing the swath of forest to be protected around lakes and reservoirs from 100 to 30 metres.

The speed with which the new draft law shot through parliament caught environmentalists off guard. The proposal was only discussed with the National Confederation of Agriculture, which represents Brazil’s large landowners – explaining the setback to forest protection efforts.

But in just a few days, 189 NGOs, headed by WWF and the Socioenvironmental Institute, organised protests to block the vote, and activists were mobilised to lobby Congress.

Greenpeace Brazil called a Dec 2 demonstration outside the Planalto Palace, the seat of the Brazilian presidency.

Activist Eduardo Quartim was arrested and held in custody for several hours after attempting to hand over a chainsaw to a senior presidential official, Pedro Parente, in a symbolic gesture.

The new forestry code represents “government authorisation to those who destroy the environment,” said Flavio Montiel, a Greenpeace political adviser.

The Technical Chamber of the National Council on the Environment has been put in charge of studying the matter and proposing alternatives by late February.