Exploitation of Brazilians

I recently found an article published in the New York Times about a year ago.  The article, titled “Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers” by Larry Rohter, discusses the governments plan to monitor Amazon Loggers and how the plan has no chance of success.  “In an attempt to create Brazil’s first coherent, effective forest policy, timber rights to large tracts of the rain forest are being auctioned off.  The winning bidders will not have title to the land or the right to exploit resources other than timber, and the government says they will be closely monitored and will pay a royalty on their activities.  The architects of the plan say it will also help reduce tensions over land ownership in the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, which loses an area the size of New Jersey every year to clear-cutting and timbering.”  In reality, the rights of the Brazilian people are what are being exploited.  Although Brazilians still have right to the land, what good is the land if the timber resources are being legally exploited?  By changing the functionality of the environment due to logging, the rest of the land will also change.  The trees are part of a functioning ecosystem upon which the Brazilian people depend and thrive.  By allowing international companies to exploit the land, the government is just exploiting the Brazilians and the land upon which they live.

One case that was addressed was the residents of the settlement of Realidade, along Highway BR-319.  They are expected to monitor forests, but they do not have a phone and the government refuses to provide one.  Without any way of communicating the serious problems related to logging which are destroying the Amazon, how does the Brazilian government expect the laws to be enforced?  And how does the government expect the problems to be passed along to them?  Without a phone, the only way of communication is in person or by letter.  By the time either occurs, it will be too late to stop the Amazon loggers that were seen destroying other parts of environment illegally.  The Brazilian government’s plan to bring large-scale logging deep into the heart of the Amazon rain forest is exploiting the Brazilian people and the environment and the loose and unreliable monitoring efforts cannot stop the new danger of increased devastation.