Amazon defender quits Brazil environment post

By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's environment minister, hailed as a champion of the green movement but scorned by powerful farming groups, resigned on Tuesday after losing key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rain forest.

Marina Silva's resignation is likely to reinforce the view that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is more concerned with economic development than conservation as a commodities export boom fuels Brazil's growth.

It could also be a setback for Brazil's ambitions to become a major voice in global environmental debates.

"Her resignation is a disaster for the Lula administration. If the government had any global credibility in environmental issues, it was because of minister Marina," said Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva, environmental group Conservation International's vice president for South America.

Silva said in her resignation letter that she stepped down because of the "difficulty she had been having for some time in carrying out the national environment agenda," a presidential spokesman said.

Farming leaders welcomed the resignation of the former rubber tapper and leftist activist.

"I hope the next minister is not as radical as Marina. She was an obstacle to economic development in Brazil," said Rui Prado, head of the agriculture federation of Mato Grosso, a big farming state.

Silva unsuccessfully opposed several infrastructure projects in the rain forest, including two hydroelectric dams and a road that will link the western grain belt with the Amazon River.