Slow Food home | About us | Foundation | Editore | Sloweb | Press Office | Store     Sloweb     Home | Sloweek | Voices from the Slow world | Slow Talk | News | Watch & Listen             Biodiversity and Business 04 Oct 07 - Sloweb Speaking in an interview to Reuters yesterday, Brazil's environment minister Marina Silva, a former rubber tapper and activist, claimed that Brazil has achieved a 50 percent reduction in deforestation over the past two years, thus proving that its increased control mechanisms are working. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration has set itself a target of zero illegal deforestation, albeit without a specific deadline. Marina Silva argues that, in the name of ethics and solidarity, besides making voluntary donations, foreign countries should also help create alternative economic activities in tropical forests, rejecting eco-unfriendly products, transferring technology and remunerating genetic research and natives' knowledge. A proposal co-authored by Brazil as part of the International Convention on Biodiversity is designed to force pharmaceutical companies to pay for drugs based on Amazon medicinal plants has been opposed by a number of western countries, but Silva believes that the wealthy countries in general should pay for Amazonian biodiversity. Source: Planet Ark www.planetark.com/   News archive from Terramadre News archive from Slowfood Foundation for Biodiversity News archive from University of Gastronomic Sciences News archive from Watch & Listen           News     Italy - 05 Feb 10     Pasta Madre     Farmers, academics, researchers, and members of the public will gather in Bologna this weekend as the city becomes host to Pasta Madre, Slow Food's two-day event focusing on bread, pasta...           News archive     France - 04 Feb 10     Europe Edges Towards Bluefin Ban     France announces their support for trade ban on blufin tune caught in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. ...     China - 03 Feb 10     China Considers Dog and Cat Meat Ban     Defenders of traditional cuisine and animal rights activists battle over potential ban on eating dog and cat meat in China ...     Paraguay - 01 Feb 10     Greenwashing for Beef Land     A Brazilian cattle-ranching company has been exposed for illegally bulldozing land belonging to a native tribe in Paraguay ...     Turkey - 29 Jan 10     First Slow Cities in Turkey and USA     New Slow Cities on the Californian and Ageana Coastlines ...     United States - 28 Jan 10     Freedom Food     Prisons launch grow-your-own schemes for inmates ...     Australia - 26 Jan 10     Slow Australians Awarded     Second-longest Australian Slow Food member named a Australian of the Year 2010 ...     Archive previous news   Slow Food 2010 - All rights reserved - P.iva 91008360041 - Powered by Blulab