Global financial crisis may help Amazon rainforest

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A global economic slowdown could help reduce destruction of the Amazon rainforest due to lower commodity prices and Brazil should set targets to limit deforestation, the country's environment minister said on Tuesday.

Carlos Minc, 57, also said at the Reuters Global Environment Summit in Brasilia that suspicions about foreign nongovernmental groups, or NGOs, operating in the Amazon were exaggerated.

Some nationalists in Congress, the military, and government say that the growing presence of foreigners in the Amazon is undermining Brazil's sovereignty and fueling deforestation.

"I think these accusations are being exaggerated. There are a few companies and NGOs linked to biopiracy. But they are the overwhelming minority," Minc said, referring to groups who allegedly smuggle plants to pharmaceutical laboratories abroad for commercial development.

"Today the Amazon unfortunately is destroyed mostly by Brazilians," said Minc, wearing one of a large collection of colorful vests that have become his trademark.

"Often the big loggers accuse NGOs like Greenpeace or WWF because they're not happy with criticism against themselves," said Minc, who won the United Nations Global 500 Award in 1989 for his conservation efforts.

Since taking office as minister in May, the founder of the Green Party in Brazil cracked down on illegal cattle ranchers and soy farmers, suspended the construction of hydroelectric dams and roads, and is promoting forestry management to help conserve the world's largest rainforest.

The fall in commodity prices resulting from a global economic slowdown will reinforce the government's own efforts in curbing deforestation, said Minc, who fought the 1964-85 military dictatorship as a student leader and was arrested at the age of 18 and exiled.

"It's true that the reduction of commodity prices reduces (deforestation) pressure but we don't want to depend on an external factor to protect the Amazon," Minc said.

Government measures include agreements with meat packers and saw mills not to buy meat and timber from illegally logged areas of the Amazon.

TARGETS

Brazilian diplomats and industry leaders have for years rejected proposals to adopt deforestation targets, saying wealthy countries needed to do more to help conserve what has been billed as the "lung of the world" for its biodiversity, abundance of fresh water, and ability to store carbon.

Now that other countries are beginning to contribute to an Amazon Fund to be officially launched on October 21, it is time the government formalizes its pledge to reduce deforestation with an official target, said Minc.

"I'm in favor," he said of the targets, which he believes Brazil could adopt in coming years.

The government last month announced voluntary objectives to end net deforestation within seven years, mostly by planting trees for commercial use and thereby reducing pressure on Amazon resources.

The Amazon Fund aims to finance conservation and sustainable development projects.

After a pledge of $100 million from Norway, the government is now talking to the governments of Sweden, South Korea and Japan and hopes to raise $1 billion within a year, Minc said.

Some countries were wary of donating to the fund without any say in how the money is spent. But a reassurance of its good use, Minc said, is that the government can only draw on the fund if it reduced deforestation during the previous calendar year.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Additional reporting by Fernando Exman; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)