Amazon for sale?
2008-05-27 09:03
Rio de Janeiro - A Swedish-born tycoon who acts as a special deforestation advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stirred up controversy in Brazil for reportedly claiming all the Amazon could be bought for $50bn.
Johan Eliasch, the 46-year-old boss of the Head sports equipment company, is under investigation by Brazilian police and intelligence services for the alleged comments and for 160 000 hectares of Amazon forest he is believed to have bought, the newspaper O Globo reported on Monday.
He reportedly made the assertions to stimulate land acquisition as part of his role as director of Cool Earth, an organisation he co-founded which finds sponsors for the rainforest as a way of protecting it.
"Eliasch held meetings with businessmen between 2006 and 2007 in which he proposed that they buy land in the Amazon, and told them 'only' $50bn would be needed to acquire all the forest," a report by Brazil's Abin intelligence agency cited by O Globo said.
The issue is a sensitive one for Brazil, which has been offended by statements by British politicians suggesting that the Amazon is too important to all of mankind to be left to the management of Brazil's government alone.
Brasilia has been progressively tightening laws aimed at protecting the huge forest by cracking down on illegal ranchers, farmers and loggers, and stepping up vigilance against foreigners looking to exploit its biodiversity.
Eliasch, who lives in London and has an estimated net worth of $790m, stopped being a significant donor to Britain's conservative party last September. He switched allegiance to Brown's Labour Party, apparently winning his consulting post in the process.
Although Cool Earth has generally received positive evaluations in Britain and the United States, some accuse the organisation of embarking on "green colonialism" and compounding the problems of indigenous groups living in the Amazon.