Greenpeace turns spotlight on man accused of extensive Amazon deforestation

The President of the Agricultural Producers Association in Santarem, Brazil - José Donizetti Pires de Oliveira - is held directly responsible by IBAMA for the illegal deforestation of the 1,645 hectares of rainforest in the heart of the Glebe Pacoval in the state of Para (1), known for its rich diversity of plant and animal life and home to traditional forest communities.

Greenpeace activists occupied the deforested area in a remote rainforest region and unfurled a huge 2,500 square metre banner with the message "100% forest crime". They were joined by local communities who symbolically planted native trees in the area. Donizetti reacted violently to the peaceful protest, intimidated the protestors and destroyed the banner.

"This is just one example of illegal activities that are destroying the Amazon. This rainforest is a global treasure that stabilizes the climate and is home to most land life on the planet and to millions of people. It's taken thousands of years to grow and once it's destroyed it's gone forever. Unless laws against these sorts of forest crime are rigorously and urgently enforced to protect the rainforest and its people, we'll have a biological catastrophe on our hands," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaign coordinator.

Donizetti is responsible for destroying an area equivalent to more than 2,303 football fields in this area of Amazon alone. Even though he has twice been fined by IBAMA, he continues to operate illegally in this area. Loggers and soy producers have even illegally built a road in the rainforest to link Santarém to the Transamazonica Highway, indicating they fully intend to illegally develop the region.

According to IBAMA, this is the largest deforestation area found in this region of the Amazon in the last seven years. "Despite its remoteness, Gleba Pacoval is becoming a frontier for the expansion of soy plantations. This devastation emphasizes the need for effective forest law enforcement," said Adario.

More forest is destroyed in Brazil every year than in any other country. In the last three years more than 7 million hectares the Amazon rainforest has been lost to give way to pastures and crop fields, including soy. Of the total soy exported from Santarém, the vast majority goes to Europe.

Deforestation has increased since north American multinational Cargill announced in August 2002 that the Santarém region is able to produce one million tonnes of soy from 300,000 hectares of cultivatable land (2). This has aggravated biodiversity loss, social conflicts and land disputes in the region.

Today's protest is part of the Greenpeace campaign to highlight the crisis being faced by the oceans and forests in the Amazon and the rest of the world. In the lead up to the Summit for Life on Earth, the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity which begins on March 20th in Brazil, Greenpeace is calling on governments to establish a comprehensive network of protected areas around the world with effective law enforcement and management.

Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions essential to a green and peaceful future. It is committed to protecting the world's last ancient forests and the people and animals that depend upon them.