In the Media
Take action to protect the Amazon!
August 19, 2011
Greenanswers.com
The Amazon Rainforest holds a special place in the hearts of environmentalists and green-minded people around the world. Covering a territory that stretches into nine countries, the Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and home to stunning biodiversity. As if that weren’t enough, the Amazon serves as a vital carbon sink, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and helping to buffer the planet against global warming.
Years of conservation efforts and international attention have reversed a trend toward rising deforestation in the Amazon. Yet now progress made in the last decade is threatened. The Brazilian government is considering a move to roll back essential protections for the Amazon, and it may take an international outcry to stop huge areas of forest from being opened to destruction.
A weakened Forest Code could mean a return to steadily increasing deforestation in Brazil, and poses a massive threat to biodiversity and the global climate. It is also strongly opposed by Brazilians, 79% of whom support a presidential veto of the legislation. A veto by President Dilma Rousseff could stop changes to the Forest Code from going into effect, and preserve the Amazon for future generations.
Please click here to read the original news item.
Keywords: Amazon, Brazil, deforestation, degradation, forest code, Latin America