More rainforest murder

Just days after rainforest conservationist Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, were killed in Brazil, a third well known environmentalist and community leader has been murdered after receiving death threats from loggers.

Adelino "Dinho" Ramos, president of a small farmers association, was shot in front of his family last Friday in Rondônia, south west Brazilian Amazon. After surviving a massacre in 1995, when some 13 people were killed, Ramos had continued his work representing the rights of small-scale farmers which often brought him into conflict with loggers and ranchers.

Rising global prices for food and commodities have raised the value of land in Amazonia and heightened the tensions between competing interests for land and forested land which can be cleared. The situation has been exacerbated further by the new Forest Code which intends to relax control over deforestation. The new Code - supported by the powerful agricultural lobby - was approved this week by the house of Deputies but has yet to be ratified by Senate and the Brazilian President.

Source: www.mongabay.com

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