MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil reacts angrily to Amazon proposal

Brazil reacted angrily to former European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy's proposal to declare the Amazon region and other rain forests as “global public assets” subject to world management

The proposal, which revived Brazil's fears that rich countries pretend control over the Amazon region was harshly condemned in a release from the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Mr. Lamy's statements "are evidence of a prejudiced view underestimating the ability of developing nations to manage their natural resources in a sovereign and sustainable manner", said the release. "Such statements are incompatible with the post of director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to which Mr. Lamy aspires".

The statement refers to the current competition for the WTO chair between five candidates, including Mr. Lamy and Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa.

The Brazilian press speculates that Brazil will use Mr. Lamy's Amazon proposal to influence the votes of other countries with tropical rainforests, such as the seven other South American countries that share the Amazon region.

Mr. Lamy, France and most of EU's WTO candidate laid out his proposal regarding collective management of the Amazon region at a U.N. conference last Wednesday. According to Mr. Lamy, if goods such as tropical rainforests, water, health and shipping routes, among others, are designated "global public assets" the international community could administer them in a collective fashion.

The proposal was also strongly criticized by former Brazilian military officers and nationalists, who for a long time have suspected rich industrialized countries are after the Amazon region with the argument that Brazil and other nations that share it cannot take good care of what are considered the world's lungs.

Extreme nationalists point out it's no coincidence that the idea was "floated" days after the slaying of U.S. missionary Dorothy Stang, who championed for the poor landless peasants and the preservation of the Amazon forests. However the Brazilian press also points out to the enormous influence in the region of illegal loggers who have been accused of depleting the Amazon.