Brazil’s environment minister quit her job this week. If environmentalists are right, this is a bad thing for the Amazon.

Marina Silva said her attempts to protect the forest were meeting with “growing resistance … in important sectors of the government and society” (Bloomberg).

Reuters believes the resignation is a major blow to the eco-credentials of president Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva. “He is increasingly conservative,” Christopher Garman, head of the Latin America practice at Eurasia Group, told the newswire. “He has caved in to the view that the Amazon has to be developed in some form or fashion.”

“Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment,” says Sergio Leitao of Greenpeace in Brazil (AP). “The minister is leaving because the pressure on her for taking the measures she took against deforestation has become unbearable.”

“Now the emperor has no clothes. The intention of Lula’s government is clear,” concurs Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth Brazil (AP). Lula has, however, insisted environment policies won’t change due to the resignation (O Globo)

In an editorial the Independent notes:

Five years ago, she was appointed guardian of the Amazon but, in that time, she has fought an uphill battle against the loggers and ranchers of Brazilian agribusiness. Indeed, she often seem a lone voice in the Brazilian government – outvoted on the introduction of genetically-modified grains, on the construction of a new nuclear power plant and on massive infrastructure projects, including two big hydro-electric dams and a major new road in the rainforest. She has finally quit, worn down by ill-health and the appointment of a rival minister to speed the approval of energy projects.

Silva is succeeded as environment minister by Carlos Minc, one of the founders of the Brazilian Green party (Reuters). A poll on the Estadao paper website has 125 people backing the new appointment vs 199 against.

Image: NASA Visible Earth