As deforestation in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest was hitting its lowest levels in over two decades, some special interests had introduced to the local Congress some law to change that.
Luckily, environmental organizations has been campaigning to avoid those catastrophic changes. Celebrities joined in too… Even more fortunately, the Brazilian President – Dilma Rousseff – vetoed those changes.
As Yale Environment 360 stated :” The presidential veto comes just two weeks before global leaders descend on Brazil for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20.”
The Union for Concerned Scientists brings some interesting developments :
Below is a statement from Doug Boucher, director of climate research and analysis, and director of the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative at the Union of Concerned Scientists:
“We applaud President Rousseff today for vetoing the most dangerous parts of this law and for her continued commitment to ending Brazilian deforestation by 2020.
“Brazil has already reduced deforestation by 68 percent since 2005. Through Rousseff’s vetos, Brazil can continue to build on its monumental progress to protect the Amazon and secure its role as the global leader in reducing carbon emissions.”
This is a small, but important victory for the global environmental movement. Just like in the United States with the No Keystone movement. Let’s keep up the good work, there is plenty to do ahead.
(Sorry, but I couldn’t help but illustrating this article by putting a photo of the famous Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen calling for this veto…)