Urgent Action:  Brazil Environmental Agency Licenses Urucu Pipeline on eve 
of World Summit on Sustainable Development 

         Indigenous peoples, local concerns, alternatives ignored 

                      Email Fernando Henrique Cardoso 

                                                August 30,2002 

Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, issued a license for the construction 
of the Urucu ? Porto Velho gas and oil pipeline, which will mean opening a 
15-30 meter wide road for 500 kilometers through the most isolated and 
inaccessible region of the central Amazonian rainforest.  Environmentalists 
and grassroots groups from the region are deeply concerned that the license 
fails to incorporate any of  the issues raised in public hearings in the 
affected area, including:  the threat of uncontrolled logging and forest 
clearing by ranchers and settlers along the road; the presence of an 
isolated indigenous group, as well as other traditional forest communities, 
in the pipeline right of way, which could be eliminated by the project; and 
the fact that environmental impact analysis failed to analyze feasible 
alternatives for transporting gas to Porto Velho. 

IBAMA issued the license  on the eve of the Johannesburg sustainable 
development summit, where Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso 
will be arriving tomorrow, and where Brazil has staked out a public 
position as an international environmental leader.  The Amazon Working 
Group, the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian 
Amazon, the Pastoral Land Commission, Friends of the Earth and others are 
calling for emails to FHC, drawing his attention to the contradiction 
between the license and Brazil's public positions. 

Please Email President Fernando Henrique  Cardoso. A sample letter follows. 

Ilmo. Sr. 
President of the Republic Brazil 
Fernando Henrique Cardoso 
pr@planalto.gov.br, silvano@planalto.gov.br 

Dear Mr. President, 

I share the concerns of Amazonian environmentalists and grassroots groups 
with IBAMA's licensing, on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable 
Development, of the Urucu ? Porto Velho gas pipeline.  The license fails to 
consider central issue raised in recent public hearings in the region, 
including the presence of isolated Indians and the Environmental Impact 
Analysis' failure to consider viable alternatives to the pipeline. 

I respectfully urge you to instruct IBAMA to review this license, and to 
include the issues raised by affected communities in the six public 
hearings carried out by IBAMA.