Amazon belongs to Brazilian people, President Lula says

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday in a national forum here that the Amazon belongs to the Brazilian people.

"The world must understand that the Brazilian Amazon has an owner, and that the owner is the Brazilian people," the president stressed, adding that Brazilians are aware of the need to reduce deforestation, as well as to develop the rainforest region.

These remarks appeared to be in response to some international sources who questioned the country's sovereignty over the region last week.

An article in The New York Times on May 18 expressed concern that the Brazilian government may not have the ability to take care of and preserve the rain forest. Several sectors of Brazilian society, including politicians and the media, slammed that viewpoint.

Also on Monday, Minister Gilmar Mendes, president of the country's Federal Supreme Court, said that Brazil has proven to beable to "manage" the Amazon region without interference from other countries.

"We have the world's tenth largest economy, which proves that we know how to manage Brazil. I think that (the developed countries) do not doubt that," Mendes told the press, following the meeting with the governor of Mato Grosso state, located in the Amazon region.

As to the rumors that foreign investors could acquire more land in the area, Mendes stressed that "the Brazilian government has mechanisms" which can control the acquisition of land by foreigners.

He also promised that the government would obverse the issue "in an appropriate way."

Local newspaper O Globo reported Monday that Swedish entrepreneur Johan Eliasch was under investigation by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency for lobbying other businessmen to buy the entire territory of the Amazon and proposing the land could be purchased for a total of 50 billion U.S. dollars.

The tycoon, who is also a consultant to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also stirred up controversy in Brazil.

The Amazon rainforest, which borders several South American nations and is home to 27 million people out of Brazil's total population of 185 million, is facing the risk of excessive deforestation.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/27/content_8261537.htm