Greens cry sellout as rainforest disappears

The former Socialist had always supported green causes and they were hopeful he would be the man to give environmental concerns the attention they deserved.

Now, however, in the light of new figures that show deforestation in the Amazon increasing for the third consecutive year, the greens are seeing red.

"Lula has been dazzled by power," said Fernando Gabeira, a former Green Party legislator who joined Da Silva’s Workers’ Party before the election but resigned last year because, he said: "Lula was talking like someone who wants development at all costs.

"He cheated us in that he gave us the impression that we were allies and today he is much more allied with our adversaries. But then again he cheated many sectors. He got into government and changed positions."

Presidential candidates who say one thing on the campaign trail and another when they get into power are nothing new. But there were many reasons to believe Da Silva was different. A former shoeshine boy and union leader who won a landslide victory by promising to make Brazil a kinder and fairer nation, he was elected in large part because of his personal and political integrity.

Now, though, with the economy stagnant, unemployment high and corruption scandals forcing the government to spend more time defending itself than tackling problems, Brazilians are starting to question both his credibility and competence. They claim he has caved into big business interests, in particular soya and beef farmers.

Prime among them are his disgruntled former allies in the green lobby. According to Gabeira, Da Silva has wavered on a number of issues, including genetically modified foods, the importation of used car tyres and the possibility of opening a third nuclear reactor outside Rio de Janeiro.

Last week’s announcement that annual deforestation grew 2% to 9,169 square miles - an area equal to the size of Israel and the second highest annual total since officials started keeping tabs on the destruction in 1988 - confirmed environmentalists’ fears.

Activists condemned Da Silva for not doing enough to prevent the rise. Government officials said they were unhappy with the figures, but claimed they were delighted at having stemmed a tide that had seen the deforestation grow 40% the year before.

"That 9,169 square miles disappeared last year is unacceptable," said Adriana Ramos, the public policy coordinator with green NGO Instituto Socio Ambiental. "What is extremely worrying is that it has levelled out at a rate so much higher than it was a decade previously."

As in previous years, most of the destruction came along the ‘Arch of Deforestation’, a swathe of land on the southern and eastern borders of the forest that is home to many of Brazil’s soya producers and cattle ranchers. Brazil is the world’s second biggest soya producer and has the second biggest herd of cattle. Both sectors are growing rapidly.

Together they are greedily gobbling up forest, and Da Silva, critics say, is turning a blind eye because the foreign currency they bring is vital to keeping the economy afloat.

One of the biggest criticisms has been his failure to spend money set aside for the Amazon Regional Protected Areas program, a World Bank-sponsored scheme that seeks to triple the amount of rainforest under protection by 2012 - and act as a buffer to more development. The Da Silva government has named no new protected areas over the past year even though officials said the money to do so was available.

"The government deforestation data is alarming and underscores the need to move rapidly with plans to zone the most biologically important parts of the Amazon into both strictly protected areas and those where resource use is regulated and sustainable," said Rosa Lemos de Sa, Conservation Director for the Brazilian branch of the World Wildlife Fund. "It worries me that they have the resources and aren’t using them."

She added: "His [rhetoric] is one thing and his actions another. He speaks about improving life for the poor but his economic performance doesn’t show that. He has given incentives to the rich and hasn’t helped the poor. To invest in agri-business is to invest in the richest 10% of the population because they are the ones who run this business. His economic policies are making the rich richer and the poor poorer."

Government officials say they are being effective and point to last month’s launch of a comprehensive and innovative plan that relieves the burden on the often weak Environment Ministry and for the first time charges 12 other ministries such as Agriculture, Industry, Justice and Labour with responsibility for halting the deforestation.

The $140m plan, which also calls for new sustainable development programmes, earlier monitoring and tougher penalties for offenders, could stop and perhaps even reverse some of the worst damage, said Environment Minister Marina Silva, herself a rubber tapper from the remote jungle state of Acre.

"We knew the problem could not be solved in a year," Silva said. "We preferred to carry out restructuring work and wait for a response in 2004. We have taken action but it will only pay dividends in the medium and long-term."

Environmentalists saluted the plan but said the time for promises was over. Da Silva is running out of chances, said Lemos de Sa.

"The fact that they took the time to write a plan involving 12 ministries is a positive sign that they are taking the issue seriously," she said. "But having a beautiful plan is no good if you don’t implement it. I am starting to get nervous. I want to see things happening."