Amazon defender quits Brazil environment post

[maddezmom]

Amazon defender quits Brazil environment post 14 May 2008 00:28:50 GMT
By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA, May 13 (Reuters) - Brazil's environment minister, hailed as a champion of the green movement but scorned by powerful farming groups, resigned on Tuesday after losing key battles in her efforts to protect the Amazon rain forest.

Marina Silva's resignation is likely to reinforce the view that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is more concerned with economic development than conservation as a commodities export boom fuels Brazil's growth.

It could also be a setback for Brazil's ambitions to become a major voice in global environmental debates.

"Her resignation is a disaster for the Lula administration. If the government had any global credibility in environmental issues, it was because of minister Marina," said Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva, environmental group Conservation International's vice president for South America.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13420813.htm

[Mika]

1. Only in America? Check her bio..

http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/532325.html

The environment minister's climb from poverty and illiteracy in the Amazon jungle to a Cabinet ministry in the capital resembles the rise of Lula da Silva, who was a factory worker before rising to the presidency. The two Silvas are not related.

Born in Acre, Silva spent her childhood collecting sap from rubber trees in an Amazon village that had no schools. She couldn't tell time until she was 14, and she was 16 before she learned to read.

When she contracted malaria and hepatitis as a teenager, she received treatment in the Acre state capital, Rio Branco, then stayed on to attend convent school and work as a maid. She later went to the Federal University of Acre, where she majored in history, and became a high school teacher.

Her involvement in politics at the university was the beginning of a fast ride to the top: from the Rio Branco City Council, to the Acre state Senate, and then the national Senate before being named environment minister when Lula da Silva won the presidency in 2002.

Marina Silva will return to her senate seat now that she has resigned her Cabinet post.

-