Remember a couple weeks ago when somebody said they were going to cut down
half the Amazon and somebody else said it sounded like an urban legend and
I suggested checking with a primary source by way of one of the Portuguese
speakers on the list and that was the last we ever heard about it?
Well, it just so happens that I guy I know grew up in Brazil. He has a
modem so I asked him to check out their version of Thomas. He said they
were pretty disorganized at that level but he'd check. he did. No luck.
Then he found this:
************************
3. *Historic Victory for Brazilian Amazon*
From: Miriam Ruvinskis
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: *Historic Victory for Brazilian Amazon*
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 16:50:53 -0700
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 22:57:18 -0800
Subject: *Historic Victory for Brazilian Amazon*
World Report
Historic Victory for Brazilian Amazon
BRAZIL - The Environmental Defense Organization has
announced that leaders of Brazil's Congress have just
shelved proposed legislation to increase the area and
rate of Amazon forest destruction, handing the Brazilian
environmental movement its first major and
precident-setting victory protecting the rainforest.
Representatives of powerful special interest groups had
pushed a draft law through a joint House/Senate Committee
that would have loosened restrictions on Amazon
deforestation, and could have caused a 25% increase in
annual rates of clearing and burning.
Massive e-mail and fax protests to Congress and the
President from all over the world, and broad national
media coverage killed the measure before it could come to
the House floor. At one point, government officials
blocked the massive flux of protest emails - but backed
down when the move was derided as censorship in the press.
Press and TV coverage overwhelmingly opposed the measure,
as did the Environment Ministry.
The special interest caucus, which was pushing for passage
of the law, has some 200 votes in the Congress, and
represents the 1% of the landowners who control more than
50% of Brazil agricultural land (while 50% of the farmers
have only 3% of the land).
The group has repeatedly used government-sponsored
legislation to support parochial, pork-barrel projects
considered unseemly even by the standards of the
Brazilian Congress. These maneuvers have yielded tens of
billions in official debt forgiveness for the few largest
debtors while health care, education, and environment
budgets suffered deep cuts.
So this "first victory" is particularly significant in
Brazil, beyond just helping to save the rainforest.
According to Environmental Defense senior scientist
Stephan Schwartzman, "it is a victory over the inequality,
injustice,class privilege, and impunity that have plagued
Brazil for 500 years. This legislation represented a
battle between the mentality of the 19th century and the
21st, over the future of the Amazon. Its important that
the 21st won."
For further information: Steve Schwartzman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jeff Conant, Environmental Health Book Coordinator
Hesperian Foundation
1919 Addison Street, Suite 304
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 845-1447
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.hesperian.org
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