The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) has expressed strong reservations about prospective changes to the Brazilian Forest Code. The code limits the amount of deforestation allowed on private properties in Brazil, and also requires other environmental protections such as the retention of strips of riparian vegetation along watercourses. Amendments to the Code, which have already been passed by part of the Brazilian Congress (the Camera de Deputatos), would substantially weaken key aspects of the Code and would also grant a sweeping amnesty for many of those who have illegally cleared forest or colonized forested lands in the past.

• ATBC Resolution Opposing the Premature Alteration of the Brazilian Forest Code (4771/1965)

Fire in the Amazon (© Bill Laurance)

• Forest Code bill could undermine sustainable growth in the Amazon by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com - July 06, 2011
• Brazilian senator: Forest Code reform necessary to grow farm sector by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com - July 06, 2011
• More about deforestation in Brazil at Mongabay.com