The Brazilian government backed off a controversial proposal to authorize private companies to mine a sprawling Amazon reserve Monday after blistering domestic and international criticism.
President Michel Temer's office will issue a new decree Tuesday that "restores the conditions of the area, according to the document that instituted the reserve in 1984," the Ministry of Mines and Energy said in a statement.
Last week, environmental activist group Greenpeace said at least 14 illegal mines and eight clandestine landing strips were already being used by miners in the Denmark-sized reserve known as Renca in the eastern Amazon.
Greenpeace said this showed the risks faced by Renca even without Temer's earlier proposal for ending a ban on large-scale foreign mining in the mineral-rich region.
Temer's decree signed on August 25 on opening up Renca—rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper—was suspended days later after an international outcry.
Mining condoned by the government will not happen, but illegal mining will continue?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @05:21PM (2 children)
Do you know anything about Brazilian politics? Brazil, like nearly all South American countries, is politically very far to the left. One of the most interesting things about Brazilian politics, and politics in general, is the correlation between leftist politics and corruption.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:03PM
GOP
oh look at that, your argument fell to pieces with a single acronym!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 27 2017, @08:54PM
Ha ha, yes leftists in power in South America.
It's not like the CIA overthrow them or anything, or [wikipedia.org]
Honduras [wikipedia.org]
Or plenty of others I'm sure. But no, the leftists are the problem.