Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva yesterday signed the controversial land-grab bill and sent it back to Congress, having vetoed the clause which environmental groups most vigorously opposed (see ‘Encouraging occupations’, below). da Silva decided to reject the part which would have legitimised claims made by people who pay squatters to occupy chunks of the Amazon….

…Nobel says this amendment means the bill is tantamount to a “wholesale legalisation of criminal land grabs in the Amazon” for an area the size of Germany and Italy combined. He adds that the bill will only sustain land grabbing activities.