Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Sugarcane Expansion Rejected

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 10 2007 (IPS) - The population of the Brazilian town of Uberaba, in the eastern state of Minas Gerais, has mobilized against the expansion of sugarcane fields. Residents of this municipality of 290,000 rejected a plan from the mayor's office that would authorize planting sugarcane in up to 30 percent of the municipality.

A previous law imposed a limit of 10 percent — which has already been surpassed by three percentage points — and the proposal would expand sugarcane plantations up to 45 percent of cultivable land, journalist Carlos Pérez, leader of the campaign, told Tierramérica.

In the past two weeks, activists collected signatures for the attorney general's office to apply the legal ban on monoculture within the urban perimeter. Also under discussion is a referendum for citizens to decide if they want sugarcane grown in the municipality or not.