BRAZIL: Judge Cancels Decision To Extinguish Mining-free Zone In Amazon

(RTTNews) - Brazilian Federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo suspended on Tuesday a presidential decree that extinguished the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca) - an area of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest where miners were not allowed.

The judge also suspended any administrative acts of the federal government intended to extinguish the natural reserve. His decision came after protests from environmentalists regarding the Brazilian government decision.

Renca was created in 1984 and has a total area equivalent to Denmark in the northern part of Brazil. The reserve was extinguished by a decree last week.

In the decision, judge Spanholo states that the environmental reserve could only be modified by the Congress, as specified in the 1988 Constitution, in spite of being created four years earlier.

"The suppression of the National Reserve of the Copper and Associates will only be possible through legislation in the formal sense, [...] that, until now, has never been edited by our National Congress", Spanholo said.

The judge also pointed out that the region of the reserve is within the Amazon Rainforest, near the Brazilian border and on indigenous lands, and therefore its extinction requires specific legislation.

The government claims that abolishing Renca is necessary to evaluate the mineral reserves of the region and to prevent the installation of illegal gold-digging, which has a detrimental effect on the environmental preservation of the Amazon Rainforest.

The Planalto also stated that in protected areas, mineral exploration permits, mining concessions, mining permits, licensing, and any other type of mining exploitation rights are prohibited.

However, according to a report by the non-governmental organization WWF-Brazil, the central area of interest for mining in Renca coincides with a large protection zone, the Biological Reserve of Maicuru, where data from the Brazilian Geological Survey (CPRM) show a substantial incidence of copper and gold.