President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a law that could legalize landholdings by some 1 million squatters occupying a Texas-sized chunk of the Amazon rain forest, despite environmentalist fears it will accelerate deforestation.
The law, approved late Thursday night, affects 260,233 square miles (67.4 million hectares) of federally owned land that for decades has been illegally occupied _ mostly by small farmers, but also by large property holders and loggers.
The government says the law will help it curb deforestation and land conflicts, but environmentalists say it will lure more people into the region and lead to more devastation.
The …
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