‘The Amazon is ours’, claims livestock leader
03/09/2009
A leading figure in the Brazilian livestock sector, Valdir Correa da Silva, has told a recent workshop on greenhouse gas emissions in the Amazon that it was unacceptable for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from overseas to dictate the rules governing environmental issues in his country.
Mr Correa, a director of Famato, the livestock and agriculture federation of the state of Mato Grosso, said: “The Amazon is ours, the rain forest is Brazil’s, and nobody knows better than we do how to care for our environment.”
His reference to NGOs is the result of a report Greenpeace issued in June condemning Brazilian suppliers of meat and leather for their alleged role in illegal deforestation in the Amazon rain forests. After that, a series of important users of Brazilian leather, including Nike and Timberland, said they would impose control measures on their suppliers there.
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