Title:  Brazil Says Will Not Let Amazon Become 'Sanctuary'  

Source:  Copyright 2001 Reuters

Date:  January 22, 2001  

Byline:  Axel Bugge

 

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil on Monday slammed a study warning

of the destruction of at least a quarter of the Amazon due to

development, saying the world's largest rain forest cannot be turned

into an ``untouchable sanctuary.''

 

The country's science and technology ministry said a report on

destruction of the Amazon published in the U.S. journal Science on

Jan. 19 was based on unreliable facts and ``ecological futurology,''

using unfounded projections on deforestation that are challenged by

Brazil's government.

 

``There is a clear perception by the government that we cannot treat

the Amazon as an untouchable sanctuary,'' said a ministry spokesman

defending development. ``There are 20 million Brazilians living

there.''

 

Sometimes considered the lungs of the Earth due to the vast amounts

of oxygen produced there, the Amazon loses an area equivalent to the

size of Rhode Island each year to loggers and other destruction. It

is home to up to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant life and

is seven times the size of France.

 

Developing the Amazon has always been a controversial issue in Brazil

because of the desire to build up the poor northern part of the

country while balancing environmentalists' concerns about keeping the

Amazon intact.

 

The Science article projected that a development plan by the

Brazilian government involving $40 billion in investments over seven

years could result in the destruction of at least a quarter of the

forest by 2020.

 

The article was written by William Laurance of the Smithsonian

Tropical Research Institute, Michigan State University researcher

Mark Cochrane and teams at Oregon State University and the Biological

Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil.

 

Laurance said he was surprised by the ministry statement because

``key members of our joint Brazilian-U.S. research team'' were part

of a joint research project of Brazil's National Institute of

Amazonian Research and the Smithsonian Institution.

 

``I don't see how any reasonable person could easily dismiss our

findings,'' he said, adding the comments were coming from a ''single

Brazilian ministry, not the government per se.''

 

But the ministry said Laurance's work ``does not reflect the

technical consensus at these institutions.''

 

Embassy Objects To Article As Well

 

And the Brazilian Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying

some information in the article was the ``object of considerable

controversy among the scientific community.''

 

``The projection by Professor Laurance does not seem to have a sound

basis since it takes into account the experience of the last 25 years

when none of the different policies (to stop deforestation) now

adopted were in place,'' the embassy said.

 

The article said if the project's plans to build more roads in the

Amazon become reality and result in an expected increase in

activities like mining and farming, the forest would be greatly

threatened.

 

The optimistic scenario predicted 28 percent of the Amazon would be

destroyed or heavily damaged while the pessimistic scenario forecast

42 percent.

 

The ministry said absolute worst case scenario would see only 25

percent of the total Amazon destroyed by 2020.