Number 295, December 04, 1997.

SOCIAL ISSUES

- Record unemployment in Sao Paulo.

Unemployment in Sao Paulo reached an all-time high during the month of October. 1.428 million people or 16.5% of the economically active population were listed as unemployed according to data of the Seade Foundation and the Inter Trade Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (DIESSE). In fact October was the second consecutive month which registered a record number of unemployed. Figures for September stood at 1.409 million or 16.3% of the economically active population.

Economists expect that unemployment numbers will decrease during November and December due to the increase in temporary jobs prior to Christmas. Seade and DIESSE forecast however that there should be a significant rise in unemployment in early 1998 provoked especially by the recent economic measures enforced by the federal government to protect the economy from international speculation. Both organizations estimate that the average unemployment for 1997 will be 15.5% of the economically active population. This compares to 15.1% during 1996. Unemployment statistics of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show unemployment at approximately 6% in Sao Paulo. The reason for the discrepancy between the IBGE figures and those of Seade and DIESSE is that the latter two organizations include people who have been seeking employment during the previous week in their statistics even though such people may have worked in a temporary job during the period.

- Large municipalities practically bankrupt.

Huge municipal debts especially in state capitals in practice means that many such cities are practically bankrupt according to a report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on November 26. The cities of Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte (State of Minas Gerais) are two of the better known examples. Without funds these cities have been paralyzing construction projects, have cut back significantly on public services, have left debts unpaid and their general strategy is to renegotiate their debts.

The situation of Sao Paulo is perhaps the most serious. The municipality owes approximately US $8 billion which is larger than its' annual income. 80% of this debt is due to be repaid by the year 2000. In Belo Horizonte the monthly salaries of the municipal functionaries are being paid in three installments. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, municipal spending has been cut by 10%. In many cases the large debts were incurred towards the end of the mandate of the previous mayors who over-spent in order to ensure the election of their candidates.

The case of Sao Paulo serves as an example. There the last mayor, Paulo Maluf, took out large loans and started huge public projects which would call attention during the latter part of his mandate in order to ensure the election of the present mayor, Celso Pitta. In recent months Mayor Pitta has been forced to make huge cut-backs in public spending and funds for social projects such as the municipal hospitals have practically dried up. Municipal health programs suffered a cut-back of 30% in recent months and a grant of just over US $60 million due to hospitals and health centers has consistently been paid late. The debt of the municipality with its' hospitals is approximately US $180 million. Expenses with rubbish collection and street cleaning in the city has been cut by 50% in recent weeks. A debt of US $46 million to the bus companies in the city of Sao Paulo caused a one day strike on December 02. Not only are there cut backs however; essential investments are not made. Estimates show that US $270 million should have been invested in Sao Paulo's municipal schools during the last two years. This investment was not made.

LAND ISSUES

- Landless invade two government ministries in Brasilia.

The number of occupations of landless in the Greater Brasilia area (the Federal District and 42 neighboring municipalities) during the last three years has increased significantly according to the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' of November 24. Here approximately 6500 landless families have occupied 200 thousand hectares. According to data of INCRA (the federal government land agency) approximately 50% of the rural properties in the 9.6 million hectare region are unproductive and so according to Brazilian law can be exappropriated for agrarian reform projects. 17 of the 61 landless campments in the region are coordinated by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST).

When a group of protesting landless of the MST invaded the Ministry of Land Policy and the national headquarters of INCRA on December 03 it caused little surprise to most observers and provoked an angry response from government officials. The landless had a list of ten demands including the immediate settlement of the landless families in 12 of the 61 campments, the exappropriation of 20 rural properties for further settlements as well as the making available of grants and seed to those already in the campments.

The minister for Land Policy, Raul Jungmann, referred to the incident as ''a cowardly, aggressive and disrespectful act'' and threatened to bring those responsible to court to pay for some minor damages which were caused to the ministry. Due to pressure from the landless who invaded its' headquarters, INCRA promised to present a proposal within the next few days to attend the demands made by the MST. The landless occupied the buildings during approximately four hours.

In our last edition of NEWS FROM BRAZIL we reported on protests by the MST in various states demanding land and adequate infra-structure for the landless. As a result of the protests in Sao Paulo INCRA agreed to make funds available for the campments to plant crops and to settle the landless. In the State of Para the protests came to an end with the promise of INCRA to make funds available for the 42 campments in the south of the state and the exappropriation of ranches for agrarian reform projects. In the State of Goias an agreement between the landless and INCRA seems to be almost ready. In Forteleza, State of Ceara, a clash between the MST and military police in front of the State Secretariat of Agriculture caused injuries to five members of the MST on November 28.

- Ranch where slave labor was found to be exappropriated.

For the first time in Brazil a ranch where slave labor was shown to exist has been exappropriated. The exappropriation order of the Flor da Mata ranch in the State of Para was signed by President Cardoso on November 28.

Last September the federal police removed 220 workers from the ranch. The workers had been subjected to conditions of slave labor and armed guards ensured that nobody left the ranch. The workers had been recruited in the State of Tocantins and had been attracted by promises of good salaries. ''No salaries had been paid and the employees we interviewed considered themselves in debt'' commented the report prepared by the police in September.

Some commentators in Brazil however pointed to the fact that the exappropriation order was signed by President Cardoso just a few days before his state visit to Britain where the press has recently given significant attention to slave labor in Brazil. The confiscation of ranches where slave labor has been shown to exist for use in agrarian reform projects has been a revendication of human rights organizations such as the Land Pastoral Commission (CPT).

- Witness of massacre in Eldorado do Carajas receives death threats.

Journalist Marisa Romao who was present when 19 landless were massacred by military police in Eldorado do Carajas last year has been receiving anonymous death threats during the last three weeks. She claims that the death threats started after the local judge set the date for the trial of the 153 police accused of the massacre for next February.

CHILDREN'S ISSUES

- Another mass break-out at young offenders' prison.

At least 44 young adolescents fled and 18 were injured during a rebellion in the Joao Luiz Alves young offenders prison in the northern region of the city of Rio de Janeiro on December 02. This is the second rebellion in the prison in less than three weeks. During the previous rebellion 200 escaped and one prisoner was killed.

The most recent rebellion started late on December 01 when the youth set two of the pavilions in the prison on fire. According to the youth, the rebellion started because a functionary beat one of their colleagues; the State Secretariat of Justice denies that this took place.

Military police were called in to quell the rebellion. They were attacked by the youth throwing stones; the police fired into the air. The youth succeeded in breaking two openings in the wall surrounding the prison and 44 escaped. 19 were later recaptured. The Joao Luiz Alves young offenders prison has serious structural problems. When the rebellion broke out there were 167 youth being held there in a space designed to hold 128.

Meanwhile, in Sao Paulo 11 public prosecutors from the Child and Youth courts formally requested on December 01 that the director of FEBEM (the state organization which caters for minors), Eduardo Roberto Domingues da Silva, be removed from his post. The prosecutors gave as their motive the overcrowding of the young offenders prisons administered by FEBEM, constant break-outs from such institutions, denouncements of violence practiced by functionaries against the youth and of unlawful offers of conditional release. A similar request was made a year ago but was suspended when the president of FEBEM undertook to build 13 smaller units for young offenders, carry out an institutional reorganization and offer better study, training, cultural and leisure programs. The public prosecutors claim that no significant changes have been carried out during the course of the year and so they requested that the director be removed.

VIOLENCE

- Update: Two important trials in recent days.

On various occasions we have carried reports on the massacre of 21 residents of the Vigario Geral shantytown (favela) in Rio de Janeiro in August 1993 and the campaign to bring those responsible to justice. Likewise we reported on the assassination of Greenpeace environmentalist Paulo Cesar Vinha in the municipality of Vila Velha, State of Espirito Santo, on April 27, 1993. Trials were held of accused in both cases in recent days and we bring you an update on the cases.

Vigario Geral.

Former policeman, 37 year old Arlindo Maginario Filho, was the second accused to be tried for the August 1993 assassination of 21 residents of the Vigario Geral favela. The 25 hour trial ended on November 28 and five members of the seven person jury found Maginario guilty of 20 of the assassinations. In the case of the 21st victim, four jurors held him to be innocent.

Maginario was condemned to a total of 441 years and four months imprisonment. He was sentenced to 19 years and six months for each crime and by Brazilian law he is not entitled to a re-trial because none of the sentences individually was greater than 20 years. The judgment of a further 10 accused of involvement in the massacre due to take place this week may be postponed until February because a key witness is in hospital.

Vila Velha.

Businessman 57 year old Ailton Barbosa was condemned to 16 years' imprisonment on December 02 at the trial which took place in the municipality of Guarapari, State of Espirito Santo. The trial lasted twenty hours and six of the seven jurors voted that he was guilty of the assassination of environmentalist Paulo Cesar Vinha on April 27, 1993.

37 year old Paulo Cesar Vinha campaigned against the destruction of an area of sand in the municipality of Vila Velha. Ailton Barbosa Queiroz and his brother Jose Barbosa Queiroz, both businessmen who sold sand, were accused of his assassination. Due to the campaign carried out by Mr. Viana, the local municipality embargoed the extraction of sand form the area. Both brothers were found extracting sand on the day of the assassination. Jose Barbosa Queiroz will be tried in March. Jose Barbosa Queiroz's lawyers requested a retrial.

- Witness protection program to start.

Five Brazilian states - Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte will form part of a witness protection program which is due to start in January. This program has been one of the principle revendications of Brazilian human rights groups in recent years since many witnesses having been unwilling to testify because of threats made against them.

Such a program has been functioning for the last two years in Pernambuco and already attended 60 people. In Rio de Janeiro the program will be able initially to cater for 36 people. In March of this year the National Secretariat of Human Rights decided to extend the program to other states. The federal government has reserved a grant of US $630 thousand to establish the program in the five states.

RACE QUESTIONS

- Trombetas Quilombos achieve land recognition

On various occasions we have reported on campaigns to have Quilombo areas recognized. Quilombos are historic communities of descendants of escaped slaves which have maintained many of the social and cultural features of their African background. According to the Brazilian constitution Quilombo areas must be preserved. Despite this many are threatened - some for example by dam constructors, others by land invaders. Here we bring you the good news prepared by the Pro-Indian Commission of the official recognition of the Trombetas Quilombo in the Amazonian region.

Descendants of Quilombos Achieve Recognition of Land Rights

The Pro-Indian Commission of Sao Paulo is pleased to announce that, as a result of many years of work in partnership with the Association of Communities Descended from Quilombos (colonies of escaped black slaves) of Oriximina', in the Brazilian Amazon, the government has recognized the rights of seven communities to 80,877 hectares of land. The families will collectively occupy the Trombetas River Quilombo Area, and will thus be able to continue their traditional activities in sustainable extraction of forest products, principally Brazil nuts, and their defense of the forests and rivers of the northern Amazon.

For more information:

Lucia Andrade,

Pro-Indian Commission of Sao Paulo,

Rua Ministro Godoi 1484,

Perdizes

05015-900 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

tel/fax: +55.11.864.1180

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

We reproduce below a report prepared by Survival International on the Brazilian government's indigenous policies.

Brazil's President Cardoso 'promises one thing, but does something else'

From Survival International

28 November 1997

The election of President Cardoso in 1995 gave new hope to Brazil's indigenous peoples. After all, he had promised the 'integral demarcation of indigenous lands, the removal of intruders, and the same rights to education and health enjoyed by the rest of the population.' After two years of broken promises, his record on the Brazil's indigenous peoples is only too clear: President Cardoso promises one thing, but does something else.

President Cardoso's pledge is not his only promise to Brazil's indigenous peoples. His government's 1996 National Programme on Human Rights contains various pledges to 'devise and implement policies to protect and promote the rights of the indigenous populations.' Survival supports the objectives of the human rights programme relating to indigenous peoples. However, it has serious doubts about the will of President Cardoso's government to carry out these objectives.

This pledge from the National Programme on Human Rights is an empty one when set alongside his government's record on demarcation. Successive governments have violated the Brazilian constitution by failing to demarcate all indigenous lands by 1993, as the constitution requires. President Cardoso's government has been no exception. Far from promoting indigenous land demarcation, President Cardoso's government has in fact reduced indigenous areas (for example, the Apyterewa, Bau and Raposa-Serra do Sol). Out of 556 indigenous areas, over 100 are yet to be identified. Numerous others still need to be demarcated.

Decree 1775, introduced by President Cardoso's government, gives settlers, miners and loggers occupying Indian lands the right to challenge the demarcation of those lands. This decree flouts the Brazilian constitution, which guarantees original land rights to Brazil's Indians, and it has been used to undermine indigenous land rights. 531 challenges to 83 reserves were registered immediately after the decree was signed.

The Makuxi Indians of Raposa-Serra do Sol face losing one fifth of their ancestral lands, some 200,000 hectares. Twenty of their villages will also be excluded. Violence and intimidation is rife. Decree 1775 will make more challenges to indigenous areas inevitable.

The Guarani of Mato Grosso do Sol state now live on less than one per cent of their ancestral lands, in conditions of appalling poverty and misery. Families are disintegrating and despair has driven over 250 Guarani, many of them children, to commit suicide. When he visited the Guarani in 1995, Justice Minister Jobim agreed the situation was desperate and promised action, but nothing has happened.

By August 1995, over 30,000 applications for mineral exploration on indigenous lands had been lodged. The draft bill on mining in indigenous areas, awaiting congressional approval, is the second development which could greatly erode Indian land rights. The bill allows for mining to take place on Indian lands. Those whose lands are not recognised will be especially vulnerable, since mining incursions are likely to prejudice the demarcation process. The bill will also be retrospective: all claims lodged prior to the 1988 constitution - which made it obligatory to consult indigenous peoples - will be considered. Some jurists believe this is unconstitutional. Survival fears that the bill will be another device by which the government subverts the constitution.

With seven presidents in as many years, FUNAI is moribund. Its 1998 budget has been slashed by 30 per cent. The budget for the demarcation and protection of indigenous lands has been cut by 78 per cent. Meanwhile, many indigenous areas are yet to be demarcated.

Even when international funding is available, such as through the G7 financed Pilot Plan for the Amazon, inaction and bureaucracy still hinder demarcation and protection. The largest concentration of uncontacted and vulnerable Indians in South America live in the Javari valley. The government agreed to demarcate and protect the Javari as a matter of priority, with the G7 funds. No steps have been taken to do this and local interests are bent on plundering the area.

In January this year, Brazil's National Health Foundation reported that the Yanomami of Roraima state were 'heading towards extinction' if the garimpeiros were not permanently removed from their lands. Lethal diseases like malaria, brought in by around 4,000 garimpeiros, threaten to wipe out this people. At least 15 per cent of the Yanomami are suffering from malaria. Between 1989 and 1995, over 20 per cent of Brazil's Yanomami died following the mass invasion of their lands by up to 40,000 garimpeiros.

(SEJUP note: Garimpeiros is a Brazilian term for gold prospectors)

President Cardoso's government promised NGOs in March 1996 to remove the garimpeiros immediately. 18 months later, and after yet more Yanomami deaths, only now have the removals started. At least 3,000 still remain however. If President Cardoso is committed to health care for Brazil's indigenous peoples, why has it taken his government 18 months to act on the garimpeiros in the Yanomami areas?

The Waicpi people achieved autonomy by expelling garimpeiros and, in 1994,initiating a project to secure their land, which was ratified by the Brazilian government in June 1996. They also developed their own income-generating, health and educational projects and restored land destroyed by goldminers.

Now, local politicians, miners and missionaries who covet the Waicpi lands have persuaded a judge to freeze the Indians' projects. Despite Waicpi calls for intervention to support their right to carry out their own projects, the government has so far ignored their appeals.

In April, Galdino Jesus dos Santos, a Pataxo Ha-Ha-Hae Indian, was burnt to death in Brasilia when five young people threw petrol on him and set him on fire. A judge decided in August that the killers would not be charged with murder.

Though this was an isolated incident, much of the violence against Brazil's indigenous peoples is systematic and goes unpunished. In the last nine years, ten Indians in Raposa-Serra do Sol have been assassinated. Nobody has ever been convicted of their murders.

In 1995, Indians from Raposa-Serra do Sol, protesting at plans for a dam which would flood their land, were beaten up by police and their houses burned down.

Garimpeiros murdered 16 Yanomami at Haxim in 1993. Five people were convicted of genocide - a landmark ruling - but only one is serving a sentence. Nearly a decade after 14 Tikuna Indians were massacred by loggers, nobody has been brought to justice, despite the identity of the murderers being common knowledge. A decade and a half after a rancher killed Mar al de Souza, an outspoken Guarani leader, his murderer remains unpunished.

Survival's five point plan of action for President Cardoso

Survival is challenging President Cardoso to uphold Brazil's constitution and to implement his own National Programme on Human Rights and:

1. follow the lead of other Latin American countries in recognising the land ownership rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples;

2. sign Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation, which recognises indigenous peoples' 'rights of ownership and possession... over the lands which they traditionally occupy;'

3. demarcate and protect the lands of indigenous peoples;

4. prosecute all those who invade indigenous areas;

5. respect Indians right to decide their own future for themselves.

Survival International is a worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples. It stands for their right to decide their own future and helps them protect their lives, lands and human rights.

Survival

11-15 Emerald Street

London

WC1N 3QL

UK

Telephone: 0171 242 1441

Fax: 0171 242 1771

Email: survival@gn.apc.org

ECOLOGY

- Deforestation in Rondonia increases by 20.6%

According to data of the State Environmental Secretariat of the State of Rondonia quoted in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on November 30, deforestation in the state has increased by 20.6% during the last two years. Until 1994, 4267228 hectares had been deforested there. At the end of 1996 the area with forest cleared in the state amounted to 5149386 hectares or 21.6% of the area of the entire state.

''By the end of the current year we expect that the total area deforested will reach 5.4 million hectares which is 22.7% of the state.... There is a tendency for the deforestation rate to even out but the problem is that this stabilization is taking place when deforestation rates are very high'' commented forester Ernaldo Matricardi, a functionary of the State Secretariat, in the Folha report. He forecasts that approximately 270 thousand hectares (1.1% of the total area of the state) will be deforested during the current year - a figure close to that of last year. According to Mr. Matricardi the worse period of deforestation was between 1993 and 1995 when the Brazilian economy showed a renewed growth - ''During this period deforestation was significantly higher when compared to previous years'' he commented.

A number of reasons seem to be largely responsible;e for the high rates of deforestation at that time - the increase in cattle ranching and the occupation of new areas along the BR-429 and BR-421 highways. Another reason was that a number of ranchers cleared large areas on their properties at the time in order to escape having their lands classified as unused and there apt for exappropriation for agrarian reform projects.

The Folha article quotes Roberto Smeraldi, director of the Brazilian office of the Friends of the Earth as commenting that what is happening in Rondonia indicates that the same is happening in other Amazonian states. The conclusions ofthe Rondonia State Secretariat were based on data taken from the Landsat satellite.

Meanwhile the National Institute of Space Surveys (INPE) announced that new deforestation data referring to the Amazonian region for 1995 and 1996 due to be publish last week would be ready by mid December. A spokesperson for the Institute commented that the delay was due to difficulties in analyzing some of the images sent by the Landsat satellite. The spokesperson denied that the Institute was delaying publication of the data until after the Kyoto International Convention which finishes on December 10. Some environmental activists suspect that if the data were released before the Convention Brazil would be suspected to very severe criticism for the increasing rate of deforestation in the Amazonian region.

- Fires in the Amazon.

We share with you another study published by the Environmental Defense Fund in recent days on forest fires in the Amazon.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND

1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, 10th Fl.

Washington, D.C. 20009

Telephone: (202) 387-3500

Facsimile: (202) 234-6049; steves@edf.org

Fires in the Amazon:

an analysis of NOAA-12 satellite data, 1996 - 1997.

Stephan Schwartzman

December 1, 1997

The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon between July and November increased over 50% between 1996 and 1997. The NOAA-12 satellite recorded 29,571 fires in the Amazon region on 136 days between July 1, 1996 and November 30, 1996 and 44,734 fires on 118 days between July 1, 1997 and November 22, 1997, an increase of over 50% from 1996 to 1997, even though data are available for fewer days in 1997 than in 1996. The average number of fires per day increased 75%, from 217 in 1996, to 379 in 1997. A previous analysis, based on a more limited sample earlier in the year, had shown a smaller increase. 1/

The data are generated by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-12 weather satellite, which detects thermal anomalies, and passes over the Amazon daily. Fires are mapped and counted by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil (http://condor.dsa.inpe.br/mapas_que).

The largest differences between the two years occurred in November and October, and result from increased economic activity, particularly burning of cattle pasture. The difference also reflects the extended dry season of 1997 caused by El Nino. Normally seasonal rains start in late September or early October in most of the Amazon, curtailing fires. 5/ In 1997, airports were still closing because of thick haze in November. The satellite recorded 2,638 fires in 22 days in November 1997, as opposed to 1,542 in 27 days in November 1996, an increase of 71%, over fewer days. In October 1997, 10,305 fires appear in 28 days, over three times more than the 3,119 counted for 26 days in October 1996.

The actual number of fires in the Amazon in both years is considerably higher than the totals obtained by the NOAA-12 satellite, for two reasons. The NOAA satellites, because of their trajectories and the locations of current receiving stations, cover the northern and western Amazon poorly. In addition, the NOAA-12 satellite passes over the region at night, when the number of fires is lower than during the day. INPE stopped analyzing NOAA-14 images, taken during the day, for the burning season of 1996, arguing that solar reflection on hot days could be confused with fires by the satellite's sensors and inflate the number of fires. While the NOAA-12 images thus under-count fires, comparison of data sets from different years does show changes in the level of burning.

New research from the region strongly suggests that fires themselves are rapidly becoming at least as great a threat to the biological integrity of the Amazon as is deforestation, as well as increasing Brazil's contribution to global CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Fires are set in the Amazon to burn off cleared primary forest, and also to burn old cattle pastures and secondary forest areas. Deforestation per se accounts for only a relatively small part of the fires every year. Some 70% of the fires burn on land already deforested. 2/

The Woods Hole Research Center and the Institute for Amazonian Environmental Research (IPAM) have shown that selective logging and ground fires - fires that burn largely undetected by the satellites, beneath the forest canopy - are degrading an area approximately equal to the area deforested annually in recent years. Selective logging, as studies by the Institute for Man and Nature in the Amazon (IMAZON) show, contributes to the flammability of the forest through opening up the canopy and leaving combustible material behind. 3/ Ground fires, often in previously logged areas or areas bordering already deforested lands, in conjunction with dry weather, are making the forest dryer. The increased burning this year means that ground fires, which may cover hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers, also increased, even though they do not appear in the satellite images. Deforestation, according to INPE's last figures (for 1994), was about 15,000 square kilometers a year. This means that a similar area, unrecorded by satellite images, is being degraded through selective logging and ground fires annually.

The Woods Hole, IMAZON and other new findings indicate that CO2 emissions and other global climatic effects of Amazon fires have heretofore been underestimated, by as much as 30%. Recent long- term research on forest fragments in the Amazon shows that up to 36% of biomass is lost in fragments within 100 meters of edges in the first 10 - 17 years after fragmentation. The authors conclude that decline in biomass in forest fragments could be a significant, and uncounted, source of greenhouse gases such as CO2. 4/

The Woods Hole Research Center/IPAM research on fires has identified an alarming new trend. Much of the forest of the eastern and southern Amazon, which depends on deep-soil water reserves to stay green in the dry season, is becoming flammable because of logging and drought. Hitherto, virgin forest has prevented the spread of fires because it was too moist to burn. Should large parts of the intact forest dry out enough to burn, as appears to be occurring, much quicker and larger scale destruction of the forest becomes possible, in a vicious circle of drying - larger fires - more drying. The Woods Hole group set an experimental fire in intact closed forest in Par? state for the first time this year. These results show that the rate of deforestation of formerly intact primary forest, as measured by analysis of Landsat images - formerly considered the central indicator of forest destruction -- is no longer the only significant, or even the most urgent, threat to the forest. Should intact closed forest begin to burn, a previously incremental process (the loss of 0.4%, or 0.5% of the forested area of the Amazon to deforestation yearly, as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s) could become a catastrophic positive feedback loop. Climate models predict a slightly drier climate in tropical areas under global warming.

While increased burning involves hundreds of thousands of actors spread across a continental region, much can be done to address the problem. One half of the area burned in 1994 and 1995 resulted from accidental fires . These fires have substantial costs for small and large farmers alike and benefit no one. Efforts to assist rural Amazonians to prevent accidental fires (through fire breaks or enforcing compensation for fires that damage others' property), and to rely less on the use of fire for agriculture (through mechanization) would make a difference. In addition, passage of the Environmental Crimes Act, currently stalled in the Brazilian House of Representatives, would give the Brazilian environmental agency, IBAMA, statutory authority to enforce the law, including restrictions on burning and deforestation, for the first time since 1989.

Whether or not deforestation rates have increased in the Amazon will only be known with the release of INPE's analysis of Landsat images. INPE has promised to release data for 1995 and 1996 by end of the year. Increased burning, and new research results on the effects of fire, however, unequivocally demonstrate that the rate of deforestation is no longer the only important indicator of threat to the biological integrity of the Amazon forest. Under current conditions of drought stress, fire itself may rapidly become the vector of greater and much quicker destruction than previously imagined possible, with potentially enormous global repercussions.

Notes:

1. Fires in the Amazon - an analysis of NOAA 12 satellite data 1996 - 1997. Environmental Defense Fund, September 23, 1997.

2. Fires in the Brazilian Amazon: The Story from the Ground.

November 1997. Woods Hole Research Center.

3 Fire as a recurrent event in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon. Mark Cochrane and M. Schulze, in press. Biotropic.

4. Biomass collapse in Amazonian forest fragments. W.F. Laurance et al, Science, Vol. 278, 7 November 1997 pp 1117-1118.

5. Fires in Brazilian Amazonia: The story from the ground. Ibid.

Summary of Analysis for 1996

July 1740

Aug 10293

Sep 12877

Oct 3119

Nov 1542

Actual Fires Counted 29571

Number of Days in Period 153

Data Days Available 136

Average No. Counted per day 217

Summary of Analysis for 1997

July 2453

Aug 14986

Sep 14352

Oct 10305

Nov 2638

Actual Fires Counted 44734

Number of Days in Period 153

Data Days Available 118

Average No. Counted per day 379

Note: Daily fire totals broken down by state are available on request for July-November for 1996 and 1997.

- Letter to the World Bank on the Itaparica Dam.

The following is a translation of a letter sent by the Brazil Network on Multilateral Development Banks to Mr. Gobind Nakani, Director of the World Bank in Brazil re: continuing problems with the resettlement program at the World Bank-funded Itaparica Dam

Brasilia, November 26, 1997

Dear Sir:

We are enclosing a report on violence in the region which has become known as the "Marijuana Polygon", which was delivered to the competent authorities in May of this year. The document looks at the economic aspects and other related issues which have resulted in daily assaults, kidnappings, and production and trafficking of drugs in a region which surrounds the Itaparica project. This situation culminated, less than a month ago, in the assassination of community leader, coordinator of the Union pole, and a director of the National Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB), Fulgencio Manoel da Silva.

This violence is the result of the lack of minimum attention by the Brazilian government to the needs of small farmers in the region and, especially, to the resettlement project for those affected by Itaparica Dam.

The resettlement and irrigation project was partially implemented with resources from the World Bank. With the irrigation project still not concluded ten years after the construction of the dam, and with local populations facing an increasingly desperate situation, in 1997, a petition was brought to the World Bank requesting the authorization of an Inspection Panel. The Brazilian government opposed the petition and its position held with the executive directors of the Bank. The government instead offered an "Action Plan" to conclude the project, which would allocate $290 million in resources for this purpose. The Bank's directors accepted this proposal with the guarantee that they would monitor the execution of the Action Plan.

Despite this fact, four months have passed and there is still no guarantee that the promised resources will be allocated, since these resources have not been included in the federal budget. Besides this, the Action Plan presented by the Brazilian government to the World Bank has yet to be made public.

Finally, we observe that despite the violence and unemployment in the region, the Government refuses to discuss the situation with the resettled rural workers. The Government created an executive group for conclusion of the Itaparica project (GERPI) which has refused to meet with the Union pole.

Given these facts, we ask your attention to this case, and request you take the necessary measures to solve the problems. We note that it was the Bank's acceptance of the proposal makes it responsible for the government's actions or omissions.

Sincerely,

Forum against Rural Violence

Commission on Human Rights

Movement of Dam-Affected People

Brazil Network on Multilateral Financial Institutions

Koinonia

Union pole

Federal congressmen Fernando Ferro and Alcides Modesto

- Brazil and the Kyoto International Convention.

The following material prepared by the IPS provides useful background material on Brazil's position at the Kyoto International Convention.

ENVIRONMENT: Brazil Stakes Out

Battleground on Climate Change

By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 26 (IPS) - Brazil has chosen the North-South dispute as its battlefront in the international conference on climate change which begins Dec. 1 in Kyoto, Japan. But the divisions in this case arise from a broad range of diverging interests.

Rarely has such a deeply divided world faced a moment of vital decisions with respect to global warming, said Washington Novaes, former environment secretary in Brazil's Federal District.

Added to the differences between countries with varying levels of industrialisation, continents and nations with differing energy needs and capacities are the discrepancies that pit small island states or nations with abundant lowlands against those protected by altitude from the expected rise in ocean levels.

With a position between the European Union's ambitious proposal for a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2010 and U.S. calls for sizably lower targets, Brazilian diplomats believe they can contribute to a consensus.

The 1990 levels of emissions are the point of reference used in setting targets to combat global warming. The United States wants to return to 1990 levels by 2010, which would barely compensate for the 13 percent increase in emissions seen in that country so far this decade. Only at that time would it agree to discuss reductions.

Brazil proposes that not only current emissions serve as the basis for negotiations, but also the gases which have accumulated in the atmosphere over the past 150 years. Thus, the government argues, the countries that began their industrialisation process earlier should take on heavier obligations in resolving the problem.

A full 85 percent of carbon dioxide released by human society, the main cause of the greenhouse effect, comes from those countries, according to Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology.

''The responsibility is shared, but differentiated,'' says Antonio Dayrell de Lima, Brazil's leading climate change negotiator.

For that reason Brazil will push in Kyoto for binding targets for the developed North.

It will suggest that those nations which fail to meet the objectives would pay a fine, for example, of 10 dollars per tonne of excess carbon dioxide emissions. The fines would go into a Clean Development Fund for financing the introduction of environmentally-friendly technologies in developing countries.

Brazil's proposal has the support of the nations of the developing South.

U.S. President Bill Clinton made it clear on his visit to Brazil in October that he was against excusing developing countries from assuming targets of their own. Emissions of greenhouse gases are rising sharply in a number of nations in the South, and in a short time those increases will annul the efforts of industrialised countries, he argued.

But the difference is enormous, Dayrell de Lima points out. While the United States releases five tonnes per capita of carbon dioxide a year, Brazil emits 0.3 tonnes - 17 times less.

Brazil, like developing countries in general and small island states in particular, supports the more ambitious objectives proposed by the European Union.

The island states and countries with lowlands are fighting for their very survival, because the melting of the polar ice caps due to global warming would lead to their flooding.

Japan, as host of the Dec. 1-10 conference, is attempting to reconcile the positions with an intermediate proposal of its own. It suggests a flexible five percent reduction on 1990 levels by 2010, which would allow the target to be halved in certain cases.

A highly split developed North will thus head to Kyoto next Monday.

Clinton attempted to justify his isolation by stressing that a reduction of emissions would mean greater sacrifices for the United States.

He pointed out that Germany had the advantage of being able to clean up its eastern portion by the simple substitution of technologies, while other European countries such as Great Britain were able to replace coal with less polluting fuels like natural gas.

But Washington's position is a result of heavy pressure from industry and the difficulty of securing congressional approval for any commitment to combat global warming which would entail costs for the national economy.

Brazil, meanwhile, is heading to Japan strengthened by having hosted the 1992 Earth Summit, where the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was approved.

Other credentials it enjoys include its fuel alcohol programme - ethanol from sugarcane - developed since the 1970s, and frequently cited as an important alternative in reducing greenhouse gases.

Brazil is also home to the world's largest forest reserves. And although its Amazon jungles continue to be ravaged by fires, a phenomenon that is contributing to global warming, that also serves as a point in favour of the Clean Development Fund.

(END/IPS/TRA-SO/MO/DG/SW/97)

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