A land scam in Brazil is hastening rainforest destruction despite claims by the Brazilian government that deforestation of the Amazon is slowing down, the Independent reports. A Greenpeace investigation has revealed that homeless families are being housed on pristine rainforest and are selling their logging rights to large timber companies. The deal means the government gets to hit targets for re-settlement, the loggers get the best timber and the in-coming residents get the logging rights money. Brazil lies fourth in the table of greenhouse gas emitters and much of that pollution comes from felling the rainforest. And it isn't just the rainforest to which President Lula is turning a blind eye. The Cerrado, a huge, tropical savannah covering more than a fifth of Brazil, is being destroyed too. The Cerrado, sandwiched between the Amazon, the famous Pantanal wetland and the Atlantic forest, is teeming with wildlife including more than 10,000 plant and butterfly species, 800 bird species and hundreds of mammals, reptiles and fish. The giant armadillo, the cougar and jaguar, and the highly threatened blue-eyed ground dove are amongst the species it boasts, yet less than three per cent of the Cerrado is protected.
More and more Cerrado land is being used to grow soy and sugar cane for conversion to biofuels - the green red herring for governments that claim they want to tackle climate change. This is destroying wildlife habitats and irreparably damaging the carbon-storing properties of Cerrado vegetation and soil.
Changes in land use are already responsible for 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Loss of the Cerrado is contributing to this and is another tragedy being sanctioned by the Brazilian government.
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's Conservation Director, said: "This Greenpeace report is another indictment of Brazil's environmental indifference. But we should ask ourselves if the responsibility for this wanton destruction lies as much with us. Our demand for goods of all descriptions is igniting the desire elsewhere to take all we can of the world's natural resources. We must want to make these resources last before we can hope that they will."
Click here for the Independent's report.