BRAZIL: Environment Minister Marina Silva resigns after losing a series of key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rain forest
Record ID:
1533652
BRAZIL: Environment Minister Marina Silva resigns after losing a series of key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rain forest
- Title: BRAZIL: Environment Minister Marina Silva resigns after losing a series of key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rain forest
- Date: 15th May 2008
- Summary: AMAZON, BRAZIL (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMAZON FOREST VARIOUS OF SUN SETTING BEHIND FOREST
- Embargoed: 30th May 2008 16:56
- Keywords:
- Location: Brazil
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: Environment / Natural World
- Reuters ID: LVADZ6D3ED7I4A0XXQQS9M3JJ775
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Brazil's environment minister, hailed as a champion of the green movement but scorned by powerful farming groups, resigned on Tuesday (May 13) 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.
Silva said in her resignation letter that she stepped down because of the difficulties she had been facing in carrying out the national environment agenda.
Farming leaders welcomed the resignation of the former rubber tapper and leftist activist, saying she was an obstacle to economic development in Brazil.
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.
In a meeting with German Chancellor Angel Merkel on Wednesday, Lula complimented Silva and said he was sad she was leaving the ministry.
"I'm obviously sad, because she was a friend who was one of the most qualified people on earth to speak about environmental issues. She is a senator and in the letter she sent me she said she wanted to continue her battle in the Senate," he told reporters.
Silva's successor will most likely be Carlos Minc, Rio de Janeiro state's environment secretary and a founder of the Green Party in Brazil.
The president also said the Brazil would not change its environmental agenda.
"Brazil's environmental policy will not change," said Lula.
The soft-spoken Silva has been ill for years with tropical diseases and metal poisoning.
She was frequently at odds with other Cabinet members and Lula, who she felt were more concerned with job growth and conquering foreign markets than with protecting the environment.
Growing global demand for Brazilian commodities such as soybeans has helped accelerate destruction of the world's largest rain forest, and Silva blamed cattle ranchers and farmers who have pushed deeper into the forest in search of land.
Lula publicly rebuffed her and named Roberto Mangabeira Unger, minister for strategic issues, to oversee the implementation of a government white paper on the Amazon.
At the presentation of the proposal last week, aides of Silva and Lula clashed and publicly accused each other of incompetence.
Silva also lost out to big business interests when the government authorized genetically modified grains and the construction of a third nuclear power plant.
The Amazon basin covers half of Brazil and holds a fifth of the world's fresh water, and 15 percent of all plant and animal species on earth.
But illegal logging and mining are rife as well as legally sanctioned felling, and swaths of land the size of U.S. states have been deforested in recent years.
Silva was an admired figure in the global environmental community and often wore ethnic-style clothing. Born to a humble family in the Amazon state of Acre, she worked as a rubber tapper and a maid before earning a university degree. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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