Greenpeace activists at the COP 17 in Durban, dressed as trees, call on President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff to “Save the Amazon, Stop the chainsaws.”
A bill proposing a complete overhaul of the current Forest Code in Brazil, first issued in 1934, was approved by the lower House of Congress last May. Despite additional changes to the text by Senators, the bill approved by the Senate this month still includes damaging allowances that will open the Amazon up once again for rampant deforestation. The text has been sent back to the Chamber for a final vote - to be completed in the coming days - and then it will go to Dilma for presidential signature before final approval. The changes in the forest code will open the Amazon up for dangerous deforestation. If confirmed by Dilma, the new law will also compromise the international agreements Lula signed during the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, in December of 2009, committing Brazil to ambitious CO2 emissions reduction targets.