Lawmaker's Report Raps Brazilian Government on Forest Fires
4/9/98
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Title: Lawmaker's Report Raps Brazilian Government on Forest Fires
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 4/9/98
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 9 (AFP) - The head of Brazil's Green Party said Thursday
he will release a report next week outlining the federal government's failure
to extinguish fires that ravaged northern Brazil.
In extracts of his report published in newspapers here, Deputy Fernando Gabeira
says the widespread fires would have caused less damage if the government had
moved when the disaster broke in December.
The fires, started by arson, accident and the local farmers' slash-and-burn
clearing methods, raged uncontrolled for months in the isolated Roraima
province under a severe El Nino-related drought.
The fires ultimately consumed some 34,000 square kilometers (13,600 square
miles) -- an area the size of Belgium -- before they burned themselves out
earlier this month with help from torrential rains.
The report criticizes the government for permitting farmers and peasants to
burn their fields as a prelude to cultivation, despite the obvious risks of the
technique.
Gabeira, who spent a week in Roraima examining the extent of the damage, cites
the forest fire-fighting service set up in Argentina in 1995 as a model for
Brazil.
He also criticizes the inefficiency of the National Indian Foundation (Funai)
in delivering medical care to Indian communities threatened by the blazes.
Meanwhile, Brazilian Environment Minister Gustavo Krause announced that 17
million dollars would be designated for Roraima's rehabilitation from the fire
and drought. The government had earlier announced it would spend 4.5 million
dollars on the northern province.
A special three million dollar fund will be set up for the Macuxi and Wapixana
indigenous groups, who were the worst affected by the fires, to provide them
with food and other necessities after their crops were destroyed.