A plea to President Cardoso of Brazil
> To:
> Dr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil --
> cc: Dr Jose Paulo Silveira, Secretary of Planning, Avanca Brasil
> cc: Dr Maria Alegretti, Director of the Brazilian Ministry for
> Environment (MMA) --
>
>
> Dear President Cardoso:
>
> With all due respect, I am writing to express my concern over
> Brazilian government plans to implement the Avanca Brasil
> Program.
>
> I am a citizen in Tasmania fighting to protect our native forest and
> wildlife here. I am also the spokesperson for the Waratah-Wynyard
Residents
> Against Chemical Trespass. Our drinking water has and continues to be
> contaminated by the aerial spraying associated with forestry activities in
> this state.
>
> For God's sake, the corporations have done enough damage in Tasmania.
Please
> don't go along this road. It holds no viable future for your children and
> grandchildren. We need an earth that's worth living in and that will
sustain
> us in every way. Please don't forget the spiritual and the moral - or else
> all is lost.
>
> Standards of living are not as simply as GDP measures. In fact, our
economic
> well-being has actually declined along with our biodiversity in flora and
> fauna.
>
> We are actually paying money for our native forests to be destroyed.
Please
> learn from our pain.
>
> We can live good lives with our forests still intact.
>
> According to recent studies in leading scientific journals, the
> Avanca Brasil projects would dramatically increase the rate and
> spatial extent of forest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.
> Historically, the large majority of Amazon forest clearing,
> logging, fires, and other degrading activities have been
> associated with roads or highways. Avanca Brasil would directly
> result in the paving of over 7,500 km of highways, as well as
> many new infrastructure projects (e.g. power lines, gas lines,
> hydroelectric projects) that would require new roads for
> construction and maintenance.
>
> Many highways, roads, and infrastructure projects proposed under
> Avanca Brasil would penetrate into the heart of the Amazon
> basin, providing corridors between densely populated areas and
> the remote Amazonian frontier. These projects would cause forest
> fragmentation on an unprecedented spatial scale. Surviving
> forest remnants would be far more prone than intact forests to
> predatory logging, wildfires, and other degrading activities.
>
> Although there have been recent, laudable improvements in
> environmental legislation in Brazil, there is little evidence
> that threats to forests have actually diminished. The Amazon's
> population is still expanding rapidly, there have been major
> booms in logging and mining activity, and enforcement of
> environmental legislation still lags far behind current
> legislation. According to Brazil's national security agency, 80%
> of all timber-cutting in the Amazon is illegal, with no form of
> environmental control, and legislation designed to reduce
> clearing on private properties is being very poorly enforced.
> Because of these trends, deforestation rates in the Brazilian
> Amazon rose significantly during the 1990s.
>
> Therefore, I would urge that Avanca Brasil be modified to ensure
> that environmentally threatening projects are eliminated from
> the program. Additionally, I respectfully request that your
> government give even more attention to pursuit of
> environmentally sustainable development, such as certified
> forestry and carbon offset payments; and to the establishment of
> additional large fully-protected areas in the Amazon. The
> international donor community should be challenged to provide
> significant grant based funding for such purposes. I greatly
> appreciate your willingness to consider my views on this
> important matter.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Brenda Rosser
> Spokesperson
> Waratah-Wynyard Residents Against Chemical Trespass
> 923 West Calder Road
> WYNYARD Tasmania 7325
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> TasTalking-unsubscribe at egroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>