The government said nine conservation and indigenous land areas within it would continue to be legally protected. But activists have voiced concern that these areas could be badly compromised, BBC online reports
A decree from President Michel Temer abolished a protected area known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca). Its size is larger than Denmark and about 30 per cent of it will be open to mining.
The mining and energy ministry says protected forest areas and indigenous reserves will not be affected. But opposition Senator Randolfe Rodrigues denounced the move as "the biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years", according to BBC
Maurício Voivodic, head of the conservation body WWF in Brazil, warned last month that mining in the area would lead to "demographic explosion, deforestation, the destruction of water resources, the loss of biodiversity and the creation of land conflict".
According to the WWF report, the main area of interest for copper and gold exploration is in one of the protected areas, the Biological Reserve of Maicuru.
The WWF says there is potential for conflict too in two indigenous reserves that are home to various ethnic communities living in relative isolation. WWF's report said that a "gold rush in the region could create irreversible damage to these cultures". Se mere på
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?309330/WWF-statement-on-Brazil-governments-decision-to-open-up-a-national-reserve-in-the-Amazon-for-mining
