Brazil’s Amazon Is Under Threat from Proposed Land-Use Laws
New legislation could worsen an already vicious cycle of illegal land invasion and clearing. A member of Ibama s fire brigade at work in Pará state in August 2020. Ernesto Carriço/NurPhoto via Getty Images
BELÉM Ricardo Salles, Brazil’s environmental minister, made international headlines this week for his public request for foreign aid for the Amazon. Less publicized than Salles’ remarks are two bills currently making their way through Brazil’s Congress that may maintain, and even propel, a devastating trend in deforestation.
Though Brazil received widespread praise for its conservation efforts not long ago the country reduced deforestation rates by 80% between 2004 and 2012 it has progressively lost its environmental reputation. Environmental destruction has surged under the administration of Jair Bolsonaro: Between 2019 and 2020, the Amazon lost 8,192 square miles to deforestation, an area the siz
France Jan 15, 2020
The bears have cute names Bubble, Feather, Snowflake and the like and look so soft and huggable when caught on video by remote cameras that study their habits. But to herders high in the Pyrenees mountains of southwest France, the animals are stone-cold killers, ravaging flocks and undermining farming livelihoods. Pyrenean livestock farmers who raise sheep for meat and.