Visitors Now:
Total Visits:
Total Stories:
Profile image
By Hispanically Speaking News (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Brazilian President Vetoes 9 Articles of Land-Use Bill

Friday, October 19, 2012 4:42
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

Brazilian President Vetoes 9 Articles of Land-Use Bill

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vetoed nine articles of a controversial land-use bill passed by Congress last month and harshly criticized by environmental groups.

The most significant veto concerns a clause related to the size of forested buffer zones landowners must maintain around rivers.

Rousseff’s veto reinserted a requirement that large landowners must maintain a zone of between 5-100 meters (16-327 feet) of native vegetation, depending on the size of the waterway.

Under previous law, that requirement had been 30-500 meters and environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature say the less stringent restrictions will increase the risk of flooding.

The bill was backed by lawmakers allied with land barons and opposed by environmentalists, who see the revised Forest Code as a step toward greater agribusiness activity in the Amazon and other degraded areas.

“The vetoes were based on what had been the original intent of the bill, meaning not to provide amnesty, not to promote illegal deforestation and to ensure social justice, (centered) on the rights of small farmers,” Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said.

In May, Rousseff vetoed 12 articles of the bill, which was subsequently sent back to Congress.

Among other items vetoed in the final bill, Rousseff also barred landowners from reforesting land near rivers and other sensitive areas with fruit species such as orange and apple trees as opposed to native vegetation.

Teixeira said some further implementing decrees will still be need to be enacted but that the vetoes were necessary to recover the principles contained in the government’s original proposal.

Published in Notitas de Noticias




Source:

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.