Antonio Laudir Carvalho Lima knows his chances of finding a new job are slim after Brazil began its biggest-ever crackdown on illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest.
Lima, 43, is vying with 6,000 other out-of-work laborers who lost their jobs after the Federal Police and environmental inspectors swept through the small Amazon town of Tailandia, seizing wood and fining sawmills and charcoal producers that couldn't prove their products came from legal sources.
Environmental groups are pressing Brazil to halt deforestation in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, after logging accelerated in the second half of 2007 following four years of declines. While the raid may trigger unemployment in Tailandia, the town will be better off in the long run, said Cristiano Noronha, an analyst at Arko Advice, a political consulting company.
``It's a necessary evil,'' Noronha said of the crackdown in a phone interview from Brasilia. ``It would be a disgrace for the government to let the Amazon be destroyed when global warming and environmental preservation is on top of the global agenda.''
As many as 500 police and guardsmen, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns, descended on the town in the northern state of Para after a mob of 2,000 people attacked state and federal environmental inspectors Feb. 19, forcing them to abandon audits of local sawmills.
Armed Escorts
``The city's streets are empty,'' said Fernanda Monteiro, 25, a secretary for the town administration. ``There are guards on horses, big dogs and police with heavy guns on every corner.''
Para's environmental secretary, Valmir Ortega, requested armed officers to escort inspectors when they visit mills.
``We will continue the operation against illegal deforestation even if I have to start wearing a bulletproof vest,'' Governor Ana Julia Carepa said in a statement on the state's Web site. ``We will not be intimidated.''
The federal government seized at least 13,000 cubic meters (459,000 cubic feet) of wood in the past three weeks, enough to fill 750 trucks, Ortega, 40, said in a telephone interview from Belem. The state plans to extend the crackdown to other cities in Para and seek more police reinforcements, he said.
The federal government said Feb. 28 it would cut off cheap loans to farmers who are illegally clearing trees to plant more soybeans and other crops after food commodity prices soared. The government intends to step up prosecution of people in the Amazon region who break environmental laws, Ortega said.
Reliance on Wood
Processing wood is the main way people earn a living in Tailandia, which has 49 sawmills, said Francisco das Chagas, president of the local sawmill workers union. It also has 2,000 kilns where wood is made into charcoal, used as fuel by Brazil's iron industry, he said.
Per-capita income in the town of 64,000 is 3,974 reais a year ($2,372), according to the federal statistics agency.
``The government wants to fight deforestation, but it needs to give people an alternative to survive,'' said Maria Neuma da Silva, 38, an administrative worker at a sawmill. ``I don't know if I will have a job tomorrow.''
About 30 percent of Brazil's portion of the Amazon region lies in Para, which has 3,000 sawmills, according to the environmental secretary's office. Ortega said the state will offer food, training and scholarships to workers who lost their jobs.
``The government is very worried about the social problems, but we can't use this as an excuse,'' Ortega said.
Lima, who has three teenage children and an elementary- school education, said he is bracing for tough times. While he hopes to be rehired by his former employer when the government campaign ends, in the meantime he is cutting back on expenses such as meat and plans to start growing his own vegetables.
``There are a lot of people already in need,'' said Lima, who earned 850 reais a month measuring logs at a sawmill. ``Thank God I saved a little bit to buy myself a small piece of land.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aYtfET3sY_IA&refer=latin_america
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