Archived press release

COMPLACENCY FANS AMAZON FLAMES - Friends of the Earth International calls for urgent action

19 March 1998

The fires are raging in areas that do not normally suffer such fire damage. The forest - already unusually dry due to the El Niño effect [2] - is more vulnerable to fire as they have been thinned and degraded by activities such as logging. Illegal logging is rife throughout the Brazilian rainforest. The Brazilian Government estimates that 80 per cent of timber is illegally extracted.

Friends of the Earth International is calling on the international community to take effective international action. This includes:

An immediate emergency package from the rich nations to tackle the fires;

• An effective forest action package to be devised at the G8 meeting in May in Birmingham, UK [3];
• Drastic international action to stop illegal logging in Brazil, and the tightening of import controls on tropical timber;

Roberto Smeraldi, Co-ordinator of Friends of the Earth International's Amazonia Programme said:

“It is incredible that the world is sitting back and watching these rainforests burn.These fires spell disaster not just for these forests, but for the global environment. Brazil is in desperate need of immediate emergency aid including the most basic fire fighting equipment. How much worse will the situation be allowed to get before the international community acts?

Roberto Smeraldi continued:

“The rich nations are partly responsible for the crisis in the Amazon, and it's about time they got off their backsides. We need effective action plans to combat forest loss and excessive logging instead of green rhetoric and voluntary principles.”

[1] According to local reports the people in the forest are losing their homes and are cut off with low water supplies. Thousands of cattle have already died and a third of the state's crops have gone up in smoke. Only a handful of fire fighters tackling the flames and, as yet, water-carrying aircraft have not been deployed.

[2] The El Niño effect is a periodic global weather phenomenon which brings drought to some areas such as Brazil, South East Asia and Southern Africa and typhoons and storms to other areas such as the west coast of America. The current El Niño is unusually severe and according to Robert May, Tony Blair's chief scientist, this could be linked to human-induced climate change.

[3] The eight major global economies are meeting in Birmingham, in the UK, in May where the issue of forests and illegal logging will be discussed.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust