WWF warns on looming Amazon deforestation disaster as Brazil senate votes to dismantle protections

Posted on 21 March 2012

Brazil’s Senate has decided to pursue short term gain over long term security in a vote to do away with long standing protections for the Amazon and other key forested areas, WWF warned today.

Brazil’s Senate has decided to pursue short term gain over long term security in a vote to do away with long standing protections for the Amazon and other key forested areas, WWF warned today.

The new law, promoted by some rural and agribusiness interests, opens vast new areas of forest to agriculture and cattle ranching and extends amnesties to illegal deforestation conducted prior to 2008. Areas formerly held to be too steep or vital to the protection of watersheds and watercourses are among those now open to destruction.

Polls showed a majority of the population opposed to the revision of the Forest Code, with a vocal majority of experts warning that the new version of the law will hinder Brazil’s long-term development and not help it.

“We have a powerful minority condemning the future of millions of Brazilians, all in the name of quick financial gain,” stated WWF-Brazil’s CEO, Maria Cecilia Wey de Brito. “No thought has been given to the social and economic costs of destroying our forests. The Senate has adopted, once again, the outdated and false notion that conservation and development are somehow at odds, something we know is not true.”

If signed into law by Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, the changes will jeopardize Brazil’s significant environmental achievements of recent years and severely undermine global efforts to fight climate change and halt biodiversity loss. The changes are also expected to expose poor Brazilians to larger risks from floods and droughts.

Brazil has committed to 2020 targets of a nearly 40 percent cut in its growth curve of greenhouse gas emissions and a reduction of Amazon deforestation levels by 80 percent compared to average rates registered for the period of 1996-2005. These are commitments of global interest, now almost certainly out of reach because of the revisions to the Forest Code.

WWF-Brazil is supported by WWF’s entire international network in urging President Rousseff to act in Brazil’s interests rather than a sectional interest – noting that the President has already said she would not support an amnesty for illegal deforestation. WWF-Brazil also has gone along with the legislative processes, has worked with others to help bring science to the political debate and has defined common points with good agribusiness and others. In early March, WWF-Brazil organised a protest which attracted more than 2,000 participants urging President Rousseff to veto the bill.

WWF warns on looming Amazon deforestation disaster as Brazil senate votes to dismantle protections

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