Threats on the Amazonian Forest

A football stadium every 3 second, that is the estimated rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon today! These statistics are
pushing international organizations such as Greenpeace to sound the alarm.

As matter of fact, since 2015, the deforestation has increased by more than 30% in comparison to the previous years! This is
explained mainly by the fact that Brazilian Forest Code, put into effect since 2012, allowing the landowners to defrost the
summits of hills of the Amazon.

For Greenpeace, it’s encouraging deforestation and therefore must be condemned due to the fact that the Amazon rainforest is
the “Lungs of the the planet”, and it has to be protected. However, this demand has turned into a hard fight.

Constitutionality of the Forest Code recognized by the judges of the Brazilian Supreme Court

The application of the Forest Code provoked grand polemics. In order to keep these polemics quiet, the Supreme
Court has determined that it was not against to Brazilian Constitution. This results in the pardon of the landowners who illegally
deforested land in the Amazon before 2008. Indeed, they are not forced to pay fines, which amount to more than 2 million
euros.
For Tasso Azevedo, former minister in charge of forests, this is catastrophic, and he said: « the one who has unlawfully
deforested for the last 20 years won’t be punished, and the one who has respected the law will have been the butt of the joke ».

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court holds the responsibility to landowners to reforest areas who had been formerly
cleared. For Greenpeace, this is not sufficient to actively protect the Amazonian forest from food industries, from woodcutter and
illegals miners.

The illegality of tree trafficking in Brazil: a reprehensible gesture for Greenpeace.

According to Greenpeace, deforestation, still greater in the Amazon, multiplies the numbers of illegals tree trafficking,
especially the illegal traffic of ipé wood. This last one is exported to United States of America and Europe for the purpose of
making furniture and wooden floors.

A money laundering system, managed by Brazilian loggers and corrupt state agents, is what makes this process possible. This
system allows you to cut more wood, while obtaining the official export documents.

Ipé, being a tree of more than 30 meters, is spread throughout the Amazon. Therefore it is necessary to clear large
areas of forest to obtain a satisfactory number of these ipé woods.
Otherwise, these processes infringement Indians fundamental rights, especially the ancestral property right.

For Greenpeace, these abuses must be stopped in order to protect the world’s last forest, a life resource for humans.