The New York Times
January 23, 2001

Brazil Says It Will Not Let Amazon Become a 'Sanctuary'

By REUTERS

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil on Monday slammed a study warning of the destruction of at least a quarter of the Amazon due to development,
saying the world's largest rain forest cannot be turned into an ``untouchable sanctuary.''

The country's science and technology ministry said a report on destruction of the Amazon published in the U.S. journal Science on Jan. 19 was
based on unreliable facts and ``ecological futurology,'' using unfounded projections on deforestation that are challenged by Brazil's government.

``There is a clear perception by the government that we cannot treat the Amazon as an untouchable sanctuary,'' said a ministry spokesman
defending development. ``There are 20 million Brazilians living there.''

Sometimes considered the lungs of the Earth due to the vast amounts of oxygen produced there, the Amazon loses an area equivalent to the size of
Rhode Island each year to loggers and other destruction. It is home to up to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant life and is seven times the
size of France.

Developing the Amazon has always been a controversial issue in Brazil because of the desire to build up the poor northern part of the country while
balancing environmentalists' concerns about keeping the Amazon intact.

The Science article projected that a development plan by the Brazilian government involving $40 billion in investments over seven years could result
in the destruction of at least a quarter of the forest by 2020.

The article was written by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Michigan State University researcher Mark Cochrane
and teams at Oregon State University and the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil.

Laurance said he was surprised by the ministry statement because ``key members of our joint Brazilian-U.S. research team'' were part of a joint
research project of Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research and the Smithsonian Institution.

``I don't see how any reasonable person could easily dismiss our findings,'' he said, adding the comments were coming from a ''single Brazilian
ministry, not the government per se.''

But the ministry said Laurance's work ``does not reflect the technical consensus at these institutions.''

Embassy Objects to Article as Well

And the Brazilian Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying some information in the article was the ``object of considerable controversy
among the scientific community.''

``The projection by Professor Laurance does not seem to have a sound basis since it takes into account the experience of the last 25 years when
none of the different policies (to stop deforestation) now adopted were in place,'' the embassy said.

The article said if the project's plans to build more roads in the Amazon become reality and result in an expected increase in activities like mining
and farming, the forest would be greatly threatened.

The optimistic scenario predicted 28 percent of the Amazon would be destroyed or heavily damaged while the pessimistic scenario forecast 42
percent.

The ministry said absolute worst case scenario would see only 25 percent of the total Amazon destroyed by 2020.