Brazil's environment minister quits
By Jonathan Wheatley in S?o Paulo

Published: May 14 2008 22:23 | Last updated: May 14 2008 22:23

Brazil's environment minister has resigned after becoming
increasingly isolated within the government.

Marina Silva, who rose from poverty in the Amazon state of Acre to
become a global figurehead for environmental activists, resigned late
on Tuesday in a manner typical of her way of operating: she wrote to
President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva and immediately announced her
decision to the media, leaving no room for possible negotiation.

The final straw for Ms Silva appears to have been the appointment of
Roberto Mangabeira Unger, the minister for strategic affairs, to take
charge of a new plan for sustainable development in the Amazon.
But during five years in the job she found herself in growing
conflict with ministers pressing for the approval of infrastructure
projects, many of which have been held up by the long process of
obtaining environmental licences.

The most visible such project concerns the River Madeira in the
Amazon, where two hydroelectric generating plants are to be built
against fierce resistance from indigenous people and environmental
groups. Mr Lula da Silva irritated Ms Silva by commenting that
Brazil's economic development was being held up "for the sake of a
few fish".

Many environmentalists were dismayed by Ms Silva's departure from
government, which came days after a landowner in the Amazon had a
conviction for ordering the killing of a US missionary nun
overturned.

Ms Silva described the ruling in the case of Dorothy Stang,
apparently murdered in 2005 for her activism on behalf of landless
family farmers, as "lamentable".

In a statement, Greenpeace, the international environmental group,
said Ms Silva had "taken the credibility of Lula's government with
her". It said: "With her exit, a faction of the government which is
pressing for economic development at any cost . . . has won a major
victory against those who seek to reconcile development with
sustainability."

Others will be less alarmed. Ms Silva was criticised by many for
seeing conservation as a "zero-sum game" and for her opposition to
initiatives attempting to reconcile the interests of ranchers and
farmers with conservation.

No replacement had been announced on Wednesday.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008