Letters
Write to:
INSTITUTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL - PARABÓLICAS - SEÇÃO CARTAS
Av. Higienópolis, 901 - CEP 01238-001 - São Paulo - SP - Brasil or
http://www.socioambiental.org/parabolicas
GOVERNMENTAL PROMISE
The note Praising the Government, published in Parabólicas # 37 (March/98) doesn’t help clarify the readers any. By commenting a WWF ad concerning the government’s promise to protect at least 10% of the country’s forests, Parabólicas says that the ad is "easy to please." What you didn’t say is that this percentage is much greater than the fully protected area (indirect use CUs), both in the Atlantic Forest as well as in the Amazon. In the Amazon that would mean a jack up from 3.8% to 10% (or 2.75% to 10%, according to computations made by the ISA). Is doing that until the year just "a little?" Parabólicas’ readers may draw their own conclusions.
Paulo Lyra - WWF Communications Department, Brasília
ANSWER: Although the WWF initiative is meritable and ISA supports it and expects it to come through, the ad wasted the opportunity to clarify public opinion and suggests that biodiversity loss problems in Brazil are about to be solved. Besides government promises not ensure the effective conservation of forests, since that of the existing CUs few are already effectively implemented, the ad does not clarify that they are indirect use CUs nor which scientists state that 10% of protected area would ensure the survival of the "entire" biodiversity of a specific ecosystem. Little more than 8% of the original Atlantic Forest still remains. I was glad to read the direct and overwhelming style of José Lutzenberger in Parabólicas # 37 (March/98). Good Lutz is second to none when the issue is writing up passionate and wise texts on ecology; texts which mesmerize the author and make him breathless. On the other hand, re-reading Lutzenberger reminds us of the lack of support to his incumbency as Environmental Secretary. Only in Brazil could a person who is so committed to environmental causes and endowed with so much talent to push this issue ahead be so slighted by so-called environmentalists. In the selfsame country, Gustavo Krause sits in office for what seems to be a lifetime. Yep, this is really brazil. Luiz Carlos Martins de Lima - Ass. Nac. de Pesquisa e Preservação Ambiental (Animpa), Paraná
I very much appreciated the story Fossil Hunters Invade the Araripe (Parabólicas # 37). What is happening with our paleonthological legacy in the Araripe Sedimentary Basin is outrageous. Our greatest fossil riches, instead of being in the Cariri and Crato museums, are in the London and New York museums. It’s about time the authorities wake up.
Herbert Nuvens de Alencar - Universidade Regional do Cariri (Urca), Ceará