Agência Brasil – ABr – Yesterday (12), during the International Seminar on the Question of Local and Global Use of Water in the Amazon, in Belém (PA), the Minister of Science and Technology, Roberto Amaral affirmed that the management of biodiversity in the Amazon may be decisive for the Brazilian trade balance. The Minister declared that this can occur through both the countrys expanding its export portfolio, with items that have large added value, and the substitution of foreign imports by products extracted or processed from the Amazons fauna and flora.
The population of the Amazon uses around 1.3 thousand plant species for medicinal purposes, and only 90 of them are commercially exploited,” the Minister informed, adding that “it is necessary to make a big scientific and technological effort to transform into exchange value that which, for the time being, exists only as a mere potentiality.”
He also recalled, that, when it comes to biodiversity, the Amazon Basin is extremely lacking in environmental protection and water resource management. (DAS)