Fw: RAINFOREST ALERT: Brazil Approves Deforestation of Important Amazon Reserve

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ACTION ALERT Please forward widely!

 

Brazil Approves Deforestation of Important Amazon Reserve

 

Rainforest Portal, a project of Ecological Internet, Inc.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/

January 25, 2007

 

TAKE ACTION

The strength and permanence of protected status for ancient

rainforests under Brazilian law is at stake

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=brazil_reserve

 

The State Government of Mato Grosso, Brazil, has voted to

drastically reduce one of the Amazon's most biodiverse reserves.

What is at stake is the strength and permanence of protected

status for ancient rainforests under Brazilian law. The

Cristalino State Park is a world-renowned ecotourism

destination, whose 184,000 hectares are home to over 550 species

of birds, and protects endangered species like the white-

whiskered spider monkey. Some 27,000 hectares of its forest will

now lose protected status; becoming vulnerable to logging,

cattle ranching and agribusiness. State Governor Blairo Maggi

initially vetoed the reduction of the park on the grounds that

it would " be seen as endorsing illegal occupancy and

deforestation of public lands " , and that it would suggest

Brazilian environmental law can be flouted. The veto was short-

lived, however, as members of the Mato Grosso House of

Representatives immediately overturned it. Mato Grosso has

suffered the highest rate of deforestation in the Brazilian

Amazon and yet it looks like the State Government is

manipulating this particular situation for political gain.

Please contact key players in Brazil's Federal and State

governments, and let them know that removal of protected status

so easily from preserved Amazonian ancient rainforests is simply

unacceptable.

 

TAKE ACTION NOW at:

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=brazil_reserve