In 1980, the newspaper Jornal de Brasília published an article entitled "The Green Alaska." It warned of the risk that the Amazon Rainforest could be sold as a form of foreign-debt payment, the same way that, in 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. Twenty-five years later, this warning has not come true, but a considerable part of the forest has been destroyed. It is as if we were telling the world that the Amazon Rainforest is ours and we have the right to destroy it.

In 2005, another sort of warning should be issued. In a short time, the financiers can propose two solutions for the payment of the Brazilian foreign debt: the total opening up of the wood trade and a vast worldwide campaign with the slogan "Get to know the Amazon Rainforest before it's gone."

Consumer desire for industrial products made of wood, along with international tourists' desire to witness the marvels of civilization could unite to attract industries and tourists to our Amazon.

We undoubtedly have the right to maintain the Amazon Rainforest as part and partial of our territory. We cannot relinquish that right and our commitment to future generations. Brazilians will not pardon the government leaders who lose sovereignty over the Amazon. But that does not give us the right to destroy the rainforest, as we have done in the past few years.

The Earth is an immense condominium, each country with its sovereignty and responsibilities. Countries cannot use their sovereignty against the interests of the other countries.

The USA has no right to continue destroying with the greedy industry feeding the American people's consumerist orgy. The greenhouse effect originates much more from the rich countries' immense industrial production than from the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.

The effects of that frenzied production are already reflected in the climate changes. Even so, the USA still refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which attempts to impose a minimum of discipline upon the world industrial process.

We cannot follow their bad example. We must demonstrate that the Amazon Rainforest is ours and because of this we must protect it, not merely as a territory, but as a heritage of Brazil and also of humanity. Taking care not to transform it into a desert.

Unfortunately, this will be difficult. The Amazon forest reserves are on the fast track to disappearing. One idea, held especially by civil leaders, is that the future does not matter and it is thus necessary to exploit what still exists in the region.

Another strategy, a favorite of the military, is that, for its own protection, the Amazon must be occupied as rapidly as possible, even if this should mean the destruction of the forest.

Better to transform tree into wood and money than to keep it as a forest, one group thinks. Better a sovereign desert territory than a forest that suffers foreign influences, believes the other. The two groups are terrified of NGOs and of native peoples, of ecologists and of backwoodsmen.

The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed by greed, whether that of the Brazilians cutting down the trees or that of the foreigners buying the wood. It is happening, above all, for lack of a national determination to choose a type of development that respects and maintains the heritage of Brazil and of humanity. The sovereignty must not be merely territorial, but also patrimonial. In this case, conservation is a basic condition of sovereignty.

Transforming our Amazon into a desert is as dangerous as surrendering it. The Amazon cannot be a Green Alaska, as was said 25 years ago. Nor can it be a Sahara Alaska, as it is beginning to resemble

Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at cristovam@senador.gov.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome - LinJerome@cs.com.

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