Dear Friends and others:
Editorial from NY Times on rain forests follows.
I hope those who have given so much to this issue will excuse a personal
comment. Given recent events, I think logging is a becoming the "Vietnam of
the environment." Everyone is pursuing national and economic interests with
only slight pause to the indisputable evidence of catastrophic damage to
the Earth's environment. We are on the brink of an enormous cataclysm here.
The Times editorial begins to paint the picture. Eventually the damage to
the human race including the number killed and maimed will dwarf Vietnam
and probably every other war of this demented century. The words of the old
song return to haunt: "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn."
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October 15, 1997
New York Times
A Rain Forest Imperiled
The issue that most Americans identify with Brazil -- the destruction
of the Amazon rain forest -- did not occupy a prominent role in the talks
between President Clinton and Brazil's President, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso. The issue deserved better, though neither man is comfortable with
the subject. Washington still subsidizes logging in America's temperate
rain forests. Brazil has abandoned some of its worst policies in the
Amazon, yet it is not enforcing its laws and seems oblivious to a range of
new and insidious threats from timber and agricultural interests.
The state of the world's rain forests is particularly distressing now that
global warming has again become a major international concern. Growing
forests help absorb the gases that warm the atmosphere. Burning those
forests, of course, adds to the problem.
More of Brazil is on fire right now than ever before. The fires are not as
widespread as they are in Indonesia, where smoke has spread to neighboring
nations, nor is commercial logging the main culprit. Brazil's fires are
largely the handiwork of agricultural interests that clear land for cattle
ranching, with a modest assist provided by subsistence farmers who engage
in small-scale slash-and-burn tactics. This year, cities like Manaus that
have gone unscathed in the past have been blanketed with smoke. Manaus has
also reported a 40 percent increase in respiratory illnesses.
The fires are increasing despite Brazil's efforts in the past few years to
protect the forest. The Government ended its ruinous subsidies to the
cattle ranchers, and now requires that settlers keep 80 percent of their
land forested. Brazil has also set aside about 20 percent of the forest as
parks, protected areas and indigenous reserves.
But the ranchers keep on burning, and the laws are not enforced.
Brazil's environmental protection agency has only about 80 enforcement
officers in the whole of the Amazon. Worse, Brazil's courts have ruled that
the agency does not have the authority to enforce the law, which means that
it cannot even collect the fines it levies.
A bill giving the agency authority to punish environmental criminals has
passed the senate and is now before Brazil's lower house. It is a bill the
Amazon obviously needs.
Tough enforcement is especially important now. There could be a major
drought this year or next, leading to widespread fires, if the
climate-altering weather pattern known as El Niņo strikes as expected. A
graver danger may come from industrial interests. President Cardoso favors
cutting roads and blasting waterways through large swaths of the forest.
This could provide a new transportation network for big farmers who want to
clear land to grow soybeans for export to Europe.
New roads could also lead to increased logging. Already companies from
Malaysia, China, Korea and other nations, many of which use clearcutting in
Asia, are beginning to log part of the forest. As these companies pave
roads deeper into the jungle, cattle ranchers may follow. The roads may
make clearcutting economically viable and tempt Brazil to sell off the rain
forest for hard currency.
Although a muscular environmental agency is Brazil's most pressing need, it
is not the only one. If Brazil goes ahead with the plan to improve Amazon
transportation, it must simultaneously address environmental concerns and
earmark more land for conservation. A worthy program to set aside
indigenous areas, which both preserves the forests and protects Indian
tribes, is only half-completed. Brazil must finish the job, which would
protect 10 percent more of the Amazon.
The country also needs to develop zoning laws for the forests and to adopt
sustainable logging practices. More broadly, Brazil, like the United States
and Asia's forested nations, must abandon the view that the rain forest is
only a commodity to be exploited for private gain.
JOHN KLOTZ
http://www.walrus.com/~jklotz/
885 Third Avenue, Suite 2900
New York, NY 10022
(212) 230-2162
(718) 601-2044