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The Brazilian Senate has approved controversial legislation that changes rules on the amount of land farmers must preserve as forest, BBC online reports Wednesday.
The bill eases fines for some previous illegal clearance if farmers commit to reforestation.
Supporters say Brazil needs land for food production, but environmentalists warn of increased Amazon destruction. Latest figures show tree clearance at its lowest since 1988, officials say.
After several hours of debate, Brazilian senators voted by 59 to seven to approve the legislation. It now goes back to the Chamber of Deputies, which in May voted to overhaul the Forest Code.
Further amendments are expected before going to President Dilma Rousseff to sign into law. The bill poses a political dilemma for Rousseff, as she aims to both support economic development but also uphold environmental pledges made during her election campaign.
Environmental campaigners say the new code will spell disaster. Greenpeace Amazon spokesman Marcio Astrini said that it would reduce the area required for conservation, so allowing new deforestation.
– It is based on the concept that the forest gets in the way, on the argument that developed countries cut their forests, so we need to do the same. That thinking is centuries old now, he said.
Under the Forest Code, which dates back to 1965, landowners must conserve a percentage of their terrain forested, ranging from 20 per cent in some regions to 80 per cent in the Amazon.
Under the Senate bill:
* farmers can count forest alongside rivers and lakes on their land as part of their conserved area, so reducing the total amount of land they need to protect or reforest
* agriculture allowed closer to environmentally fragile areas
* fines suspended for land cleared illegally before 2008 if farmers sign up to replant trees over the next 20 years.
On Monday, the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) said there had been an 11 per cent drop in the amount of rainforest cleared between August 2010 and July 2011 compared with the previous year.
But in at least two states, Rondonia and Mato Grosso, rainforest clearance rose considerably.
