Greenpeace to award 'Golden Chainsaw'

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The environmental group Greenpeace has nominated Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and five others for its first "Golden Chainsaw" prize.

The award goes to the Brazilian deemed to have contributed most to the Amazon's destruction.

Figures released last week showed deforestation of the Amazon rainforest reached the second-highest level on record in 2003-2004 -- an area of 26,130sq km, driven by logging, ranching and farming interests.

Greenpeace nominated Lula, his chief of staff Jose Dirceu, Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues, Mato Grosso state Governor Blairo Maggi and Para state Governor Simao Jatene.

The prize will be given to "the Brazilian personality whose action or inaction were decisive in the incredible levels of deforestation in the Amazon," a Greenpeace statement said.

The winner, to be announced on June 6, will be awarded a statue made from illegally logged wood.

"It's a very difficult choice. All six are strong candidates," Paulo Adario, Greenpeace's Amazon coordinator, told Reuters.

Activists say the government promotion of an agricultural boom has encouraged the pillage of the Amazon while its environmental protection efforts have been ineffective.

Mato Grosso state saw the most deforestation in 2003-2004 and Governor Maggi is known as "the Soy King" for his vast farming empire there. Para state leads the way in killings and other violence linked to land disputes.

- REUTERS