According to this article in World Magazine:
Brazil’s Environmental Ministry said late Sunday that 84,000 square miles of the Amazon rain forest – an area about the size of Kansas – would be declared a protected zone over the next three years.
Time will tell if this declaration will amount to jack. A lot of soybeans are presently being grown in “protected zones.” Striking while the iron was hot, the alpha politician in Brazil took the opportunity to shift the blame for the destruction of his country’s rainforests to the rich nations:
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blamed industrialized nations for the “unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.”
“It is unacceptable that poorer nations continue to suffer the main burden of environmental degradation,” the Brazilian leader told cabinet ministers from more than 90 countries.
Who is more culpable; the drug supplier or the drug user? People are people, be they poor and trying to get rich, or rich and trying to get richer. I wonder how many villas he owns?
And, according to the WWF:
… today’s announcement also spells the end of plans to create the world’s largest palm oil plantation in Kalimantan along Indonesia’s mountainous border with Malaysia. The scheme – supported with Chinese investments – was expected to cover an area of 1.8 million hectares and would have had long-lasting, damaging consequences on the Heart of Borneo.
Apparently, several government computer servers in Indonesia had to be shut down when they were swamped by emails from environmentalists (conservationists?) around the world. Good work people, wherever you are, whoever you are.
