Why Brazil's President Is a Dangerous Steward for the Amazon
APRIL 23, 2021
BY ANNA BUSS
Carved out of the rainforest, the Trans-Amazonia Highway is a 2.500 mile-road that connects seven northern states in Brazil. The audacious project was started in 1972 during the country’s Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) with two objectives: development and security of the “unoccupied” region. In order to bring companies and large-scale farmers there, the government offered large portions of land, tax exemption incentives and attractive financing. The move culminated with the expulsion of thousands of small farmers and entire tribes of indigenous peoples, solidifying a long history of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
On April 22, Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro spoke at the U.S. Climate Summit affirming his nation’s commitment “to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030,” and he “anticipates Brazil’s goal of zero emissions to 2050.” ]He was one of 40 world leaders present. During his remarks, he also said Brazil is “on the forefront in combating climate change,” and that his administration is “complying with the measures to combat deforestation and preserve the Amazon.”
Not everyone is buying into the far-right leader’s sudden change of heart, and some suspect it is a distraction from the political fallout over his pandemic-related missteps and nascent charges of disassembling Brazil’s environmental infrastructure.
Juliana de Paula Batista, a staff attorney with Instituto Socioambiental – (ISA) an organization working on social-environmental issues and indigenous communities’ rights in Brazil, is one of the skeptics. “It doesn’t make sense for Bolsonaro to promise [Biden] something that is beyond his government when as the President, he has the ability to take direct and concrete actions to stop deforestation, but instead he’s actually encouraging it,” for economic development, she told me during a phone conversation.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/23/why-brazils-president-is-a-dangerous-steward-for-the-amazon/
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