Brazil's New Environment
Chief Proposes Sending
Armed Forces To Protect
Amazon
Brazil's newly-appointed
Environment Minister
Carlos Minc said Sunday
that he would propose
making the country's
armed forces play a more
active role in
protecting national
parks, Indian reserves
and the Amazon rain
forest.
Minc, who is scheduled
to take up the post from
his predecessor Marina
Silva Monday, is
expected to make his
proposal during his
Monday's meeting with
President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva.
The new environment
minister said President
Lula would negotiate his
proposal with the army.
"The president is the
chief-in-command of the
armed forces. Internal
laws may come together
in defense and
conservation of these
special areas," he
added.
The Amazon "will not
become coal," Minc
noted. "We will continue
with the same policies
that the former minister
Marina Silva had
insisted. We will also
do many other things
that she was unable to
accomplish and that we
now have the conditions
to fulfill." he said.
Minc, a co-founder of
the Green Party in
Brazil and currently Rio
de Janeiro state's
environment secretary,
will bring his team of
environmental protection
professionals to
Brasilia to fulfill his
plan.
The Amazon rain forest,
which borders several
South American neighbors
and is home to 27
million people out of
Brazil's total
population of 185
million, is facing the
risks of excessive
deforestation these
years.
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