Pig iron production fueling Amazon deforestation Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
September 21, 2005
Pig iron production in the states of Para and Maranhão is fueling deforestation a Brazilian newspaper reports.
Accoding to O Estado, coal-producers are illegally using wood and vegetation from the nearby rainforest to supply coal to iron-working companies in Maraba, Brazil.
The Pastoral Commission for Land reports that the vegetable coal industry has illegally employed "children in slave-like work conditions" as well according to a translation of the O Estado by Amigos da Terra, Amazônia Brasileira, an organization affiliated with Friends of the Earth.
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