While Brazil prepares to host the Rio +20 Earth Summit this June and present itself as a leading model for sustainable development, the Brazilian government is undertaking measures that will put the Brazilian Amazon in jeopardy. The Brazilian Congress is pushing through a bill that will recklessly rewrite the country’s forest protection laws and this past month President Dilma Rousseff signed legislation that severely weakened the IBAMA, the Brazilian Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Although Brazil has made great gains in fighting deforestation this past decade, the government is removing important pillars of forest protection, putting Brazil’s international commitments on the Amazon and sustainability into question. This session will discuss the new forest code bill, the recent weakening of IBAMA, and the state of the Brazilian Amazon today as Brazil prepares to host the Rio +20 Earth Summit.
About the Speaker
Daniel is a Forests Campaigner from Greenpeace USA and works primarily on Greenpeace’s Amazon Campaign. He is currently based out of DC but also works time to time from the Greenpeace office in Manaus, Brazil. Prior to working with Greenpeace, Daniel worked with The Prince’s Rainforests Project, The Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Earth Day Network. As a student attorney at American University’s Human Rights Law Clinic, Daniel got his start working on tropical forests and extractive industries through an Inter-American Human Rights case representing indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation in Yasuni, Ecuador.
About Amazon Watch’s Washington, DC Spring 2012 “Green-Bag Lunch” Series
How is the protection of human rights crucial to defending our environment? Through the lens of the iconic Amazon basin, we examined the current day threats to both the rainforest and her peoples. We heard from numerous advocates about the strategies being employed in the defense of environmental, indigenous, and human rights in the Amazon and elsewhere.
