33 firms fined for deforestation in Brazil

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IANS/EFE | 07 Apr, 2010
Thirty-three companies in Brazil have been fined for deforestation and irregularities in managing their industrial activities, the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama) has said.

The violators, most of them operating in the Amazon region, were fined a total of 275 million reais ($152.7 million) and most of the sanctions were due to inadequate reforestation of areas where they obtained the wood to make charcoal, Ibama said Tuesday.

The companies will also be ordered to suspend their activities until they meet the existing environmental regulations, which oblige them to reforest regions where they log the wood for making charcoal, it said.

While the industries have to keep operating, they can't do so by "destroying eco-systems," Ibama spokesman Roberto Cabral Borges said.

The country's forestry law asks companies that use charcoal in their operations to create mechanisms that guarantee reforestation of regions they have logged, he said.