Priscilla Mazenotti      Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – The Chamber of Deputies will vote a controversial bill this week that could be an indicator of just how much control the executive branch has over its vast congressional majority. In play is the question of whether or not the new Land Use Law (“Codigo Florestal”) will include an amnesty for landowners who have cleared areas they were not supposed to. The government says that will not happen.

Minister of Agrarian Development, Pepe Vargas, says that the administration of Dilma Rousseff will not issue an amnesty and denied that any negotiations were underway with the rural caucus (translation: landowners and those who represent them).

“We want a Codigo Florestal that preserves what is standing and replaces much of what was cut down illegally,” said the minister, who went on to say that there had to be different rules for small family farms and agribusinesses with thousands of hectares.

A Codigo Florestal bill was approved by the Senate, but the bill in the Chamber that is now up for a vote has at least 21 changes. One of the most controversial changes was the removal of provisions requiring the recovery of areas along rivers.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Código Florestal: ministro do Desenvolvimento Agrário diz que desmatadores