SUMMARY Of THE ISSUE

The New Forest Act, written to accommodate a new power plant in Brazil, allows the destruction of 60% of what's left of the Amazon Rain Forest and will directly cause the extinction of 100,000 plant and animal species. It will increase the carbon emissions of Brazil 17-fold, whereas the natural rain forests of Brazil, if left untouched, provide the world with an invaluable source of oxygen. Further, the New Forest Act would force 13,000-25,000 indigenous people, who have been living in the rain forest in harmony with nature for thousands of years, to be transplanted to urban areas, the lifestyles of which are entirely foreign to them. Protesters in Brazil have been executed and tortured or 'made examples of' (i.e., had ears cut off) over this issue. Please help stop this unfathomably enormous insult to human rights as well as to the eco-balance of our planet. Sign this petition for the continued protection of the Amazon Rain Forests in Brazil as well as their many inhabitants, human or otherwise. Sign to protect the eco-balance that we all rely upon as inhabitants of this planet.

NEW BRAZILIAN FOREST CODE

The New Brazilian Forest Code is a set of recently approved laws that regulate the conservation of the natural environment of Brazil.  The New Forest Act effectively forgives environmental crimes perpetrated during the last three years and will allow the deforestation of an area equivalent to 220,000 km2 (two hundred thousand square km- half the size of California).  The current legal reserve (forest area that must be kept within a property) will be drastically reduced and riverside forests will lose their current protection.  As a consequence, there will be more droughts in dry regions and more floods in wet regions.  Greenhouse emissions will increase 17-fold (!) compared to the current national emission.

MAIN FLAWS

The main argument to defend the new legislation is that this is a necessary measure for increasing food production.  By forgiving the current million dollar debt owed by environmental criminals, precious federal resources that could be applied in improving food production would be lost, and more deforestation is not the solution to the global food crisis.  (This is especially nonsensical because most of this land would be turned into cattle farms.  Cattle products are an extremely unsustainable food source for humanity- it takes 100 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of beef.  The land upon which that grain was grown could have been used to produce 100 times more vegetarian food!  By the way, more than half of the Congress representatives of Brazil are directly or indirectly related to cattle farming, so they push for more cleared land on the property they already own.)  Forest areas increase food production because they increase seed distribution and help to control plagues.  Forests also decrease the cost of reducing water contamination (it may cost 150 times more to control river contamination when forests are absent).  The sole beneficiaries of the New Forest Code are large farms and it leaves no privileges for small properties.

DESTRUCTION OF ECOSYSTEMS, PLANTS AND ANIMALS

The New Forest Code will directly cause the extinction of 100,000 animal species.  It will also allow the destruction of 60% of the Amazon Rain Forest!  Other ecosystems would also be destroyed.  The impact studies of the scientific community were completely ignored in the passing of this new legislation.

INTERNATIONAL DISSENTION

There has been increasing popular pressure to demand that this legislation does not pass with radical street protests, but the media has ignored the issue as it continues on its path as planned.  (Street protests coordinated in several cities gathering over 3,000 participants in some instances have been reported as a mere 100 participants).  In an unprecedented event, all former environmental secretaries alive have signed a document repudiating the new legislation, but those politicians currently in office are opposing it.  Building international pressure is very important, especially as it concerns the destruction of an ecosystem that has global impact and may be destroyed in an irreversible way.  Please get in touch via brazilforests@gmail.com if you wish to build mobilization in your region.

BELO MONTE HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT

The project was recently approved by President Dilma and would be the 3rd largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.  It will cost the equivalent of nearly 19 billion US dollars (if social and environmental costs are accounted for, estimated to be 25 billion US dollars) and will fulfill a mere 2% of the country's energy needs.  The main beneficiaries of this energy are the mining companies, themselves bringing even more destruction to the Amazon region of Xingu, one of the most untouched areas deep in the Amazon Rain Forest!  13,000-25,000 indigenous people from several indigenous tribes that preserve millenary cultures in their natural habitat are being forcefully expelled from their land.

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

The area to be flooded for the construction of the hydroelectric power plant is 516 square km and an even larger area will be affected by the drought that will be caused down the river stream.  The decomposition of the flooded forests will cause methane emissions that surpass the current national emissions and may continue to do so for more than 40 years.  Thousands of animal species that are indigenous to the region of Xingu will be extinct and billions of individual nonhuman animals will die.

The people that are being expelled from their land live isolated from mainstream society and survive on the provisions of their natural environment.  With the construction of Belo Monte, they will be forced to move to cities to live a degraded life which is alien to their culutre and which they have not chosen to live.

WHAT YOU CAN DO (aside from signing the petition, of course!)

The Brazil for Life in the Forests Movement has been engaging in a series of actions countrywide (in Brazil) gaining the support of tens of thousands of people, hundreds of NGOs and a few celebrities.  However, the interests of the government and large corporations (who are the real beneficiaries of these destruction projects) add up to the equivalent of nearly 100 billion US dollars, and this is why the national media has been working to suppress the progress of this movement.  To help circumnavigate that, the Brazil for Life in the Forests Movement is creating an international network of collaborators who can mobilize locally in large cities worldwide by protesting at consulates, embassies and busines fairs, moving the local media to cover this immensely important topic.  If you wish to take part in this international mobilization network, please vwrite to brazilforests@gmail.com

To learn more about these issues that are already affecting the lives of millions of sentient beings, please visit http://brasilpelasflorestas.blogspot.com