LEAD: Brazilian Senate passes controversial new forest code

Dec 7, 2011, 1:27 GMT

Brasilia - The Brazilian Senate passed late Tuesday a new forest code which, according to environmental organizations, paves the way for increased deforestation in the Amazon.

The bill passed in a 59-7 vote. An earlier, different version of it was passed in May by the lower house of the Brazilian Congress, which will now need to approve the latest text.

As legislators debated, environmental activists called for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef to veto the law. The bill is expected on Roussef's desk by the end of the month.

The new forests law would provide broad amnesty for deforestation by farmers and ease requirements for riverine and rainforest conservation.

'Civil society is still being ignored, as are science and social movements,' said Tatiana de Carvalho, who is coordinating the environmental organization Greenpeace's campaign against the new code.

Mario Mantovani, head of the NGO SOS Mata Atlantica, complained recently that the proposed code only heeds 'blackmail from landowners.'

The new code, if eventually implemented, would exempt farmers from the payment of fines for illegal deforestation carried out before 2008, as long as they commit to recovering the rainforest areas that were destroyed.

Small land holders, owning up to 400 hectares, would no longer be required to restore areas that they illegally deforested.

The bill also reduces from 30 to 15 metres in width the swath of original vegetation that has to be preserved on the banks of rivers narrower than 10 metres - a measure environmental activists say increases the risk of natural disasters, including floods and mudslides.

The new code would also reduce the area of compulsory rainforest reserve from 80 per cent of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to just 50 per cent in those states where preservation areas and/or the lands of indigenous peoples cover more than 65 per cent of the land.

The Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock backs the proposed new code and has said that Brazil needs the changes to 'preserve its position as one of the largest food exporters in the world.'

The confederation said the law would conserve 61 per cent of Brazil's original forestland, 18 per cent of which is in rural landholdings.

But environmental activists assembled in the South African city of Durban for annual United Nations talks on climate change and global warming charged that the move will increase deforestation, keep Brazil from meeting ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions and tarnish the country's image as an environmental leader.

The new forests law, the environmental group WWF said in a statement Tuesday, 'will have serious impacts on decisions being made at the UN climate change negotiations in Durban.'

Brazil will next year host the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Rio biodiversity conference that launched the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

From 2006 to 2010, Brazil cut the rate of deforestation in the Amazon by half compared to the previous five years, according to WWF.

'If changes to the law are adopted, an area of about 79 million hectares (about the size of France and the UK combined) would be left unprotected,' according to a Brazil government research body, WWF said in a statement Monday.

WWF said that the new code could result in the emission of up to 29 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

The Amazon, which spreads across Brazil and other South American countries, is the world's largest green lung, but it is fast disappearing due to agriculture and other pursuits.

A major issue on the agenda in Durban is boosting efforts to preserve and restore forests. Deforestation currently accounts for 20 per cent of global carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming.