[pf] Brazil: new plan to clean the Amazon of illegal loggers and miners

· Every time I write an e-mail now, or in this case a note at the top of a
Fwd, I hear Jeremy say: "You must be the chattiest recluse I ever met";
after my:
>· As a recluse, I had great admiration for the Electoral Reform Coalition ...

· I guess it's true; I've sent nearly 900 e-mails to three lists over the
last 2-3 years, about 625 of them to Positive Futures. {I put links to them
at:
http://www.emucities.com/emu/misc/davd/rare/PosFutArchive-David.html (114kB)
  and to the Deep Ecology list at:
http://www.emucities.com/emu/misc/davd/rare/DeepEcolArchive-David.html (20k)}

· Anyway; the BBC item below is some hope for a Positive Future.    D.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1014000/1014440.stm
  is:

<IMG src=
"http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1010000/images/_1014440_logging300.jpg"
alt="Greenpeace ship pursues illegal loggers" border=0 width="300"
height="180">
                
Illegal loggers chopped down an area of rainforest the size of Hawaii in 1999

By Tom Gibb in Sao Paulo


The Brazilian Government has announced a major new plan to try to clean the
Amazon jungle of drug traffickers, illegal loggers and miners.  

Police and army units are being sent to patrol the world's largest
rainforest.  

The programme, called Pro Amazonia, is the latest of many announced over
the last year and will cost $435m. 

The patrols will be backed up by satellite surveillance as well as a $1.4bn
radar system along the Colombian border which was announced earlier this
year.  

Brazil is worried that the war against drugs in Colombia could push
traffickers over the border.  

But despite all the technology, it is an extremely difficult task to patrol
almost two million square miles of often impenetrable jungle. 


Forest destruction

At the same time, the patrols will try to clean out illegal loggers and
gold miners, many of whom have been moving into areas reserved for the
Amazon's dwindling Indian population.  

Destruction of the Amazon is continuing at a pace which alarms many experts. 

 Last year, according to the government's own figures, an area the size of
Hawaii was cleared  by illegal loggers.  

The plan reflects Brazil's new priority of defence of the Amazon, with army
units being moved to the area from the south. 

 Intelligence from aerial surveillance could be shared with other countries
in the region.  

 However, the Brazilian authorities have been very clear that they don't
want to join in Plan Colombia, the $7.5bn US-backed effort against the
Colombian drug trade.

 © BBC News 

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sent on to Positive Futures by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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