A Dream for a Better World

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has established an international fund to help protect the Amazon rainforests in the country.  Although not providing any money of its own, the President is seeking donations to the fund to the tune of $21 billion, including $1 billion in the first year.  Brazil would retain its control over the Amazon and the funds would be used to promote various forest protection programs. Norway has kicked in $100 million. The question is whether other nations will want to wait and see what comes of the climate negotiations at the UN, where negotiators from around the world are debating how to calculate deforestation emissions and create a system to fund conservation programs in tropical nations. 

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, an arm of the Brazilian government heads the list of the top 100 deforesters of the Brazilian Amazon.  At the very top is the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform, in charged with overseeing land settlement.  Environment Minister Carlos Minc also released new evidence that deforestation rates continue to rise. Earlier this year, it was revealed that several years of progress in slowing deforestation has come to an abrupt halt which sparked an uproar, ultimately leading to the resignation of the previous Environment Minister Marina Silva.  Despite recent setbacks, the government is promising action, starting with a new initiative to halt deforestation by 2015. To help pay for all of this, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is requesting $21 billion from the international community. Earlier this month, Norway stepped up with $1 billion.

The deforestation rate in Brazil has taken on a whole new sense of emergency.  The Brazilian Parliament has just adopted a provision into law providing for an increase in the area of the Amazon that may be granted for rural use with no need to call for bids. The limit, previously set at 500 hectares, has been increased to 1,500 hectares, allowing deforestation of up to 20 percent of the area granted.  This law will allow an increase of soybean plantations and cattle ranches in their need to exploit more land for destruction.  Recently, a report by the National Space Research Institute showed that the Brazilian Amazon lost 1,096 square kilometers of forests during May.   

Approximately 2,000 penguins were recently found dead in two southern Brazilian states, victims of an oil spill from an unknown source.  Hundreds of other animals have been found covered and debilitated in the oil.  The surviving animals were in such bad state that additional veterinarians and biologists from other parts of Brazil have been sent in to help in the recovery effort.  Approximately 30-40 animals per day are being cleaned in a very time consuming process.  Feathers covered in oil cannot keep birds warm and dry.  The oil also weighs the birds down to where Penguins can’t swim and sea birds can’t fly and as a result, they drown or freeze to death since it is currently winter in the Southern hemisphere.  As of yet, the ship responsible for the spill has not been identified.