People in the streets say NO to Brazilian Forest Law changes

By Bruno Taitson, from Brasilia
The group unfolded a peaceful protest against the legal text of the draft reform bill that will come before the Senate for voting, probably in the next few days. Criticism is most vociferous against the proposal to pardon environmental crimes committed before July 2008, the proposed changes to the form of calculating the size of Permanent Protection and legal reserve areas, the exemption from the obligation to recuperate illegally deforested areas and the transfer of the power of decision on a series of environmental issues to the state and municipal spheres of authority.
Former Senator and ex-Minister of the Environment Marina Silva defended the mobilization of the people to pressure senators to reject the retrograde proposals and to call on the President of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff, to veto the provisions that promote amnesty and reduce protection for the legal reserve and Permanent Protection areas. “Dilma will be more than justified in vetoing these points of the law in keeping with the commitments she made during the second round of the presidential election campaign”, she insisted.
University of Brasilia sociology student Pedro Piccolo highlighted the grassroots mobilization on this issue and declared that society’s dissatisfaction with the changes that are being pushed through in the Senate and House of Representatives is very clear. “The Congress and the Federal Government are on their knees before the big agribusiness interests. The supposed concern for governability is casting out our dreams of a better country”, he surmised.
There were also around 300 children in the Tres Poderes square showing the Congress and the President of the Republic that the upcoming generations are the ones that will be most highly jeopardised by the changes to the Forest law. A petition with over 1.5 million signatures was handed in to the President of the Republic expressing society’s deep discontent with the direction taken by the debate on the draft bill in the Senate and House of Representatives and calling on the President to veto those provisions that contemplate amnesty for deforestation and the reduction of Permanent Protection and Legal Reserve areas.
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(c) WWF-Brasil / Claudio Maretti