BRAZIL
The Forest for the Trees
Brazil’s supreme court upheld controversial changes to laws designed to protect its rainforests in a ruling that environmentalists say will encourage further deforestation.
The changes to the 2012 law offer amnesty to those owing fines associated with illegally clearing trees before July 2008, and reduce the amount of land that owners must restore as forest by 112,000 square miles, the BBC reported. In total, the Amazon rainforest comprises millions of square miles of forest.
Brazil has reduced deforestation in recent years – losing less than 2,000 square miles in 2012 after a high of more than 10,000 in 2004. But recent research argues that a surge in small-scale deforestation may put that success in question, according to the environmentalist website Mongabay.com.
While Brazilian farmers say that amnesty for past transgressions is needed to stimulate economic growth, environmentalist Nurit Bensusan from the nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental told BBC the plan “creates the impression that if you deforest today, tomorrow, you are handed an amnesty.”
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