Brasilia, Brazil – Preserving the rain forest ranks as the top priority for the 20 million people living in Brazil’s Amazon, the first such study polling the region’s population showed on Wednesday. S
aving the rain forest was listed as the No. 1 priority by 34 percent of respondents to the survey, intended to help identify ways to develop the impoverished area without destroying the environment.
Garo Batmanian, secretary-general of the Brazil branch of the World Wildlife Fund, which conducted the survey, said the study showed people living in the Amazon wanted development of the world’s largest tropical forest without destroying it.
“The big message (from the poll) is that the Amazon wants sustainable development, without more deforestation,” said Batmanian.
The poll also found that a majority of opinion-makers in the region considered the forests as the Amazon’s most important economic resource.
But development was also high on the list of priorities.
Construction of roads was the top priority For 27.8 percent, while 17.7 percent considered the main priority to be developing agriculture – activities associated with destruction of the forests.
The survey of 2,049 people was carried out between August and October 2000 across three Amazon states – Acre, Rondonia and Para. No margins of error were given.
The study’s results came after the release of figures last month showing that destruction of the Amazon jumped to its highest levels in five years in 2000.
Development of the Amazon – which is larger than all Western Europe and home to 30 percent of the world’s animal and plant life – has long angered environmentalists who warn that economic activity could lead to its disappearance.
The impenetrable forests of the Amazon make up more than half of Brazil’s landmass, yet only a small number of its 170 million people live there.
The WWF also polled 90 opinion-makers and leaders, including businessmen, scientists, lawmakers, journalists and the army.
One of the recommendations made by the opinion-makers was changing a government economic development plan for Brazil. A study published this year said the plan could destroy up to 42 percent of the Amazon if it went ahead.
Among the opinion-makers polled, only the army thought that forests were not the main economic resource of the Amazon. It gave more importance to minerals and the potential for hydroelectric power generation in the area.
The army, worried about Brazil’s extensive and isolated Amazon jungle borders with seven countries, has long championed large-scale development of the Amazon with the construction of towns along the borders.
