At his inauguration, President Fernando Collor de Mello described the "ecological imperative" as perhaps the only legitimate restraint on the free-market forces he intends to unleash to try to restore economic growth.

His speech turned the page on an era in which successive military presidents had tolerated pollution as a prestigious byproduct of the industrial development they craved. The appointment of José Lutzenberger, the scourge of previous governments and long the idol of the ecological movement, to Collor’s cabinet as environment secretary is also transforming Brazil’s image as a careless polluter.

Collor has abandoned the hysterical nationalist tone that characterized the replies of former President José Sarney and his military chiefs whenever foreign governments asked questions about ecological matters.

The Collor blueprint for environmental policy includes comprehensive targets for the first 10, 100 and 1,000 days of his five-year term. Environmental control groups have been set up in all government departments, supervised by Lutzenberger, and a study group will analyze debt-for-nature swaps.

Collor is committed to:

- a ban on all exports of unsawn logs;

- a ‘green army’ of forest rangers;

- the enforcement of existing legislation on ecological ‘crimes’ and pesticide abuse;

- legislation to control noise pollution and the transport of dangerous cargoes;

- a domestic natural resources tax to be paid by mining and other companies for use of non-renewable resources, and the review of government concessions if ecological damage is suspected;

- a detailed study on the environmental impact of any big industrial or state-sector project, and

- active dry-season policing of Amazonia to prevent burning by farmers.

Lutzenberger says Collor’s announcement that farming companies will have to pay capital gains tax should greatly reduce the area of Amazon rainforest cut and burnt.

"Whenever businessmen got wealthy they bought ranches, which meant they could write off their taxes. This was one of the main reasons for the devastation, because ranches in Amazonia had no purpose except for speculation and tax evasion," Lutzenberger told South.

Lutzenberger and international pressure groups are lobbying to prevent the controversial continuation of the BR364 highway that would connect industrial São Paulo with Peru’s Pacific coast by cutting right through the Amazon. In principle, the highway would promote economic growth by improving Brazil’s access to Japanese markets. But many suspect its real purpose would be to give Japan access to Amazonia’s timber.

The occupation of Amazonia — viewed by the military as "a land without men for men without land" — was a politically effective, if immensely destructive, safety valve during the 1981-83 recession. Mi!lions of displaced industrial and rural workers then sought a new life on colonization sites with government help.

The latest recession, induced by the government’s anti-inflationary programme, threatens to displace many more workers from the industrial south.

Yet Collor is committed to reducing the migratory flow to Amazonia, at least until an agro-ecological zoning plan can promote orderly development of the entire basin. It remains to be seen if he will be able to afford the political cost of not using the Amazon as a safety valve for those without work. 

-Richard House in São Paulo

Source : South, June, 1990

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