MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil opens vast Amazon nature reserve to mining
Established in 1984 under the then military dictatorship, the reserve's protected status restricted mining activities to state companies. Brazil stripped a vast Amazon nature reserve of its protected status in a move that could expand mining in the region, in a decree published on Wednesday. The four million-hectare reserve is home to indigenous people but also rich in gold and manganese.
Established in 1984 under the then military dictatorship, the reserve's protected status restricted mining activities to state companies. Wednesday's decree stressed that it does not override other existing environmental protection laws.
But campaign groups such as the World Wildlife Fund have expressed concern about the environmental threat to the reserve from potential mining projects.
A report by the mining ministry in April said that lifting the protected status could provide “access to minerals potentially existing in the region” by letting private companies operate there.
The mining department in Amapa, one of the state’s home to the reserve, said environmental institutions were supervising the plans.
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Read all commentsStupid idea, disgusting Law. Just the beginning of more destruction of essential rain forest.
Aug 25th, 2017 - 07:52 pm 0Brown envelopes passing around ?
Aug 26th, 2017 - 10:12 am 0Talking of brown envelopes, they don't even bother with them any longer - they're too small to fit the wads of cash being distributed....a couple of days ago, news channels showed a video recording, taken by the right-hand man of the now ex-governor of Mato Grosso (to be used at a later date, if necessary, to defend himself) where he hands over R$ 600,000 (about US$ 200,000) in bribes, to each of 7 or 8 state deputies, in payment for having voted favourably for a State project. You see them stuffing the banknotes into their coat pockets, into backpacks, cardboard boxes...one of them, a woman, even complains when her R$ 600 thousand came up short...eventually she agrees to receive the balance later....when approached by the press to explain the money, some denied it despite being caught on tape, another said it was to pay off some old campaign bills, and the rest invented absurd reasons to try to justify it......must be a tremendous coincidence that the value paid to each one was the same, and within 10 minutes of each other, in the private chambers of the ex-governor's aide.
Aug 26th, 2017 - 07:53 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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