Amazon

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said the vetoes would protect the environment Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed parts of a controversial bill which regulates how much land farmers must preserve as forest. Among the 12 articles which President Rousseff rejected is an amnesty for illegal loggers. Brazil's farmers' lobby had argued that an easing of environmental restrictions would promote food production.

May 25, 2012 SAO PAULO-Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff used her line-item veto powers on a congressional bill that weakened the nation's benchmark environmental law protecting the Amazon. Rousseff removed 12 articles from the bill, among them sections environmentalists feared would most lead to increased destruction of the rainforest. The bill passed congress last month after more than a decade of efforts by