It was to have been the compromise that cooled the white-hot controversy over revisions to Brazil’s forestry law. But the proposal, by Brazil’s National Environmental Council (Conama), has satisfied only one side in the debate. The council, comprising representatives of federal ministries, state governments, environmental groups and industry associations, has voted to retain key requirements in the current forestcode—among them, that owners of large Amazon rainforest parcels keep at least 80% of their wooded land intact. That pleases environmental groups, which had feared a rollback of Amazon forest-protection measures. But this and other provisions in Conama’s forest-code proposal have angered the farm lobby, whose members want permission to clear more of their Amazon land for crops. Now the measure heads for... [Log in to read more]