2011年12月10日星期六

Yahoo! News: Brazil

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Brazil

Saving the Amazon, from forest floor up (AP)

Posted: 10 Dec 2011 08:39 AM PST

In this Sept. 20, 2011 photo, a front-end loader moves legal timber harvested from a managed forestry area for use in the Concrem Group's wood factory in Paragominas, northern state of Para, Brazil. Paragominas has become a pioneering 'Green City,' a model of sustainability with a new economic approach that has seen illegal deforestation virtually halted. Experts say the metamorphosis is the best hope for showing the 25 million people who live in the Amazon that the forest is worth more alive than dead. 'Green City' plan aims to halt all illegal deforestation through a mix of enforcement, the creation of the Amazon's only local environmental police force, and promotion of an economy that doesn't rely on clearing jungle. Instead, the focus is on sustainable development, using managed forestry for a wood industry, and introducing modern farming techniques to increase production while using less land. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)AP - Just three years ago, the manmade fires here were so fierce smoke would blot out the Amazon sky, turning the days dark. Towering rain forest trees exploded in flames, their canopies cleared to let pasture grow for cattle.

Century-old Afro-Brazilian religion under threat (AP)

Posted: 10 Dec 2011 06:33 AM PST

In this photo taken on Nov. 25, 2011, Rosa Cardoso, 89, lies on the floor during the 'Exu' and 'Pomba Gira' ceremony at an Umbanda house of worship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Intolerance and outright hostility against Umbanda, as well as against Brazil's other major African-descended religion Candomble, have recently returned to the spotlight as religious-freedom activists cry foul over the demolition of a house known as Umbanda's birthplace. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)AP - Rosa Cardoso has practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion of Umbanda almost all of her 89 years, yet she hasn't stopped hiding her faith from the rest of the world.

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