FRA is joining the campaign to increase pressure on Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff to veto the Forestry Bill.
Seattle, United States, May 21, 2012 — Forestry Research Associates (FRA) is joining the campaign to increase pressure on Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff to veto the Forestry Bill.
FRA, a research and analysis consultancy specialising in sustainable forestry and forestry investments, has added its voice to those of environmental groups all over the world who are campaigning for the forestry bill to be thrown out by the popular president. The bill would allow those carrying out illegal logging to get away without paying fines through an amnesty. It would also open up areas of forest to loggers to make way for the cultivation of riverbanks regions.
During Rousseff’s campaign trail in 2010, she promised to veto the bill, which campaigners claim threatens the future of the Amazon rainforest and the un-contacted tribes that live in its depths.
The current laws ensure that around 80 per cent of the privately owned land in the Amazon remain as forest, while the new bill would allow landowners to cultivate more of this land.
FRA said that the bill represents a major threat to the good work that the Brazilian government has done over the past decade to try to limit deforestation. It said that the moves to draw industry away from the use of forest timber and towards the use of timber grown in sustainable plantations, such as those run by investment firms like Greenwood Management, has helped to significantly reduce the rate at which rainforests are being destroyed in the Latin American country.
“This bill represents the largest threat to the Amazon that we have seen for years,” stated FRA’s analysis partner Peter Collins.
He added, “We call upon President Rousseff to fulfil her pre-election manifesto by vetoing the plans to open up more of the Amazon to agriculture and development. We are also against the amnesty for illegal loggers that sends the wrong message to those involved in the practice all over the world.”
About Forestry Research Associates
Forestry Research Associates is a research and advisory consultancy that focuses on forestry management, sustainability issues and forestry investment around the globe.
Media Contact:
Peter Collins
Forestry Research Associates
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Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 316 8394
info@forestry-research.com
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