Brasils skoglov ødelegges!

Forslaget om å endre skogloven i Brasil - Codigo Florestal - skal opp til behandling i Kongressen med det første. Om den blir vedtatt i sin originale form, vil det være ulykke for skogen og kampen mot avskoging. Forslaget vil bl.a. gi amnesti til alle som har avskoget ulovlig fram til 2008!

Ulovlig avskoging fram til 2008 kan bli tilgitt med et pennestrøk! Foto: Regnskogfondet

Forslaget om å endre loven ble presentert i 2010 av Kongressmedlemmet Aldo Rebelo, og har vært heftig debattert siden det kom. Miljøbevegelsen kaller det en av de største truslene mot skogen og det biologiske mangfoldet i Brasil noensinne.

I tillegg til amnesti for ulovlig avskoging, vil forslaget drastisk redusere størrelsen på verneområder i hele Brasil og bygge ned miljødirektoratets mandat. Endringene vil gjelde skogen i alle økosystemer, inkludert Amazonas, verdens mest artsrike savanne (cerrado) og den truede atlanterhavsregnskogen (mata atlantica).

Demonstrasjon i Brasilia mot undergraving av skogloven.

Demonstrasjoner for og i mot
De siste dagene har det vært store demonstrasjoner i hovedstaden Brasilia. Den største var til støtte for forslaget. Da brukte jordeierforeningen og storgodslobbyen millioner på å fly inn demonstranter.

Rett før helga hadde et 30-talls fagforeninger og miljø-, småbonde- og rettighetsorganisasjoner, bl.a. MST, Greenpeace og ISA, sin demonstrasjon mot forslaget. Mye mindre, men etter min mening et mer legitimt uttrykk for de mest berørte i denne saken: lokalbefolkning og småbønder. Og med et mye mer framtidsrettet budskap: En reell bærekraftig utvikling og beskyttelse av det biologiske mangfoldet i Brasils skoger.

Her er flere bilder og mer info om demonstrasjonen (på portugisisk)

Under finner du manifestet til disse organisasjonene, oversatt fra portugisisk til engelsk med Google pluss litt flikking. Og helt nederst lista over organisasjonene som har skrevet under oppropet.

FOR A JUST AND EFFECTIVE FOREST LAW:

NO TO THE ADOPTION OF THE ALDO REBELO PROPOSAL

Is to be voted in the House one of the greatest crimes against our country and its immense biodiversity: the destruction of the Forest Code. Our law, tkat protects the river banks and hillsides from erosion and landslides, that keeps part of our forests, savannah and caatinga preserved, and that encourages the sustainable management of our natural resources, is the target of the bancada ruralista!

Claiming that the law hinders the agribusiness, the ruralistas ordered Deputy Aldo Rebelo (PCdoB/SP) to propose an amendment to the law that is about to be voted and that, among other things, will:

a) provide amnesty for illegal deforestation in PPAs carried out until 2008, will no longer be necessary to recover the illegal logging conducted on slopes, edges of river and wetland, benefiting those who broke the law, but harming society, which will have to live forever with rivers siltation, landslides, poisoned water, homes and crops carried by flood, among other

b) reduce the protection of rivers and hilltops, provides that the smaller rivers, just the most abundant and fragile, have less protection, which can reach the current quarter. Likewise, removes any protection to the hilltops, and fragile areas subject to landslides and erosion in the event of misuse. Added to the amnesty, will mean a very significant loss of protection to these areas.

c) reduce the legal reserve in the country: property exempt from tax up to four modules to recover the legal reserve, and all other decreases the calculation basis, which means further diminish an area which is considered by all small as to protect biodiversity. Not to mention the possibility of fraud, with larger farms were artificially divided to avoid having to recover deforested areas.

d) allow the compensation of legal reserves in remote areas without any environmental criteria, taking into account only the land value, not the environmental importance or the need for environmental restoration of the region where it should be, many times already. This proposal will have repercussions on the agrarian structure in the country, driving out small farmers and peasants, Pueblo peoples and Maroons

e) enable municipalities to authorize deforestation, which means creating the total breakdown in forest management in the country, since there are numerous cases of prefects who have personal interest in the subject, setting an unacceptable conflict of interest

To those who argue that what matters is proposed to maintain monocultures poisoned with pesticides, powered by slave labor and environmental destruction a constant. Is this not what interests the country.

We, environmental organizations, social movements and trade unionists from all over Brazil, defending the values ​​and practices quite different. We therefore advocate a different proposal to the Forest Code, which must include, among others:

• Differential treatment for family farms, which have an environmental balance of the pillars of its survival on earth, with technical support to regain their public areas and free of records;

• Zero Deforestation in all biomes, except in cases of social interest and public benefit by consolidating the current trend in the Amazon and blocking the destruction that makes great progress in the Cerrado and Caatinga;

• Maintain current levels of legal reserves and permanent preservation areas, but allowing and supporting the use of agroforestry in these areas by the farmer family

• Obligation of recovery of any environmental liabilities present in permanent preservation areas and legal reserves, not accepting the amnesty to the loggers, but supporting those who have acquired economically passive areas for them to recover these areas;

• The creation of consistent public policies that will ensure recovery of the productive areas protected by the Forest Code, with the guarantee of qualified technical assistance, funding and credit for agroforestry systems, guaranteed prices for forest products and environmental services payments

Brazilian society demands from Congress and the President elected that this ominous report is not approved, and that is put in its place a text that interests all Brazilians, ie that does not diminish the protection of environmentally important areas, but create conditions so that they are effectively protected.

So thousands of people today are organized to scream:

NOT TO THE BANCADA RURALISTA PROPOSAL!

FOR A FOREST CODE THAT SECURES PRODUCTION AND PROTECTS THE FORESTS!

Associação Brasileira dos Estudantes de Engenharia Florestal – ABEEF
Associação de Preservação do Meio Ambiente e da Vida – APREMAVI
Associação dos Servidores da Reforma Agrária em Brasília - ASSERA
Associação dos Servidores da Carreira de Especialista em Meio Ambiente e do Ibama - ASIBAMA
Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT
Confederação Nacional dos Servidores do Incra - CNASI
Conselho Indigenista Missionário – CIMI
Conselho Pastoral de Pescadores Conservação Internacional – Brasil Crescente Fértil
Federação dos Estudantes de Engenharia Agronômica do Brasil – FEAB
Federação Nacional dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras na Agricultura Familiar – FETRAF
Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica Greenpeace Grupo Ambientalista da Bahia – GAMBA
Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico – GTA
Instituto Centro de Vida - ICV
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconomicos - INESC
Instituto Socioambiental – ISA
Mira Serra Movimento das Mulheres Camponesas – MMC
Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens – MAB
Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores – MPA
Movimento dos Pescadores e Pescadoras Artesanais – MPP
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST
Pastoral da Juventude Rural – PJR
Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Agropecuário - SINPAF
Sociedade Chauá
Via Campesina
Vitae Civilis