Brazil confiscates cattle to protect its rain forest

Regarding the article “Brazil confiscates cattle to protect its rain forest” (June 26): We must highly commend Brazil’s new environment minister, Carlos Minc, for resolutely cracking down on ranchers occupying illegally deforested land.

Preservation of the Amazon rainforest is this generation’s mandatory task and is contingent on this forceful style of prosecution against those who do not respect environmental legislation.

With this move, Brazil begins to demonstrate to a skeptical international community that its government is serious about protecting the rainforest from increasing illegal deforestation.

It is entirely appropriate for Minc to seize commercial livestock from protected land so that ranchers realize his hard-line stance on rainforest protection is for real. However, this is only the first step in protecting the irreplaceable rainforest, and Brasília would be wise to continue strict regulation of environmental protection provisions.