Rio, September 29, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - In the next few weeks the Ministry of Environment will send the National Congress a bill covering all aspects that involve the cultivation of genetically modified soybeans, temporarily permitted in the country by the Provisional Measure signed by the government on Thursday (25). This information was provided by the secretary of Biodiversity and Forests of the Ministry of Environment, João Capobianco, at the seminar "The Question of Transgenics," sponsored by the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden on Friday (26).

According to Capobianco, the Ministry of Environment has been working together with other Ministries on the formulation of the project. "This bill, in fact, establishes broad and adequate norms to deal with this problem, which is actually not a problem. We transformed transgenics into a problem through the lack of clear norms, since it is in everybody's interest to assure environmental security and public health," he explained, adding that the current laws are extremely confusing and conflictingl, which caused the issue to end up in the Judiciary.

The secretary said that the Ministry of Environment wants to resolve the problem, by defining clearly what can and cannot be licensed. "This is what we want, and the law is what is going to provide an enduring and adequate response, from the perspective of the Ministry," he guaranteed.

Capobianco observed that there has been a misconception concerning the Ministry's responsibility for conducting environmental impact surveys. He explained that the organ is responsible for setting the terms of reference for such surveys, to be executed at the expense of the interested parties, who submit the conclusions for the Ministry to evaluate and discuss whether or not to approve the license. (DAS)