Ivan Richard
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The Ministers of National Integration, Ciro Gomes, and Environment, Marina Silva, went to the Senate yesterday (31) to accompany the presentation of the Sustainable Amazon Plan.

According to Gomes, this is the first project encompassing all the problems of the Amazon. "It is the first strategic plan formulated with a vision of all the angles of the complex issue of the Amazon, fleeing the perspective based on the axis of Brasília, São Paulo, and Rio, and relinquishing all traces of technocratic fancy, to establish a consensual base that will organize all political and community forces of the Amazon on behalf of this long-term strategy," he affirmed.

According to the Minister of Environment, the Sustainable Amazon Plan is founded on four structural guidelines: territorial organization and environmental management, sustainable development with technologies adapted to the region, incentives for sustainable productive activities, and the promotion of social inclusion.

Silva went on to say that the project is already underway. "The process is already beginning to take effect with the sustainable BR-163 [federal highway] plan, the plan to combat deforestation in the Amazon, and a series of measures for property and territorial organization," she informed.

Despite the presence of the two ministers, the meeting, which should have been attended by members of various Congressional Commissions (Environment and Consumer Protection, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, and Sustainable Development), was adjourned for lack of a quorum. The hearing was rescheduled for an indefinite future date.

Translation: David Silberstein