BellingenNSW<p>How a mayor beat the loggers to turn the place green again<br>Could Bellingen become a “green municipality”?</p><p>"A region battered by predatory logging and ranching...With its forest-gobbling ranchers, bootleg loggers and dodgy sawmill operators, this sprawling township the size of Israel was a big red flag."</p><p>“For decades, Paragominas was one of the Amazon’s epicentres of deforestation and timber extraction. That changed in 2008, with the municipal environmental pact, which reduced deforestation by 80%,” says Beto Veríssimo, co-founder of Imazon, a rainforest-based thinktank. ..Controlling deforestation turned the township into a magnet for investment and economic growth.”<br>&gt;&gt;<br><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/07/brazil-amazon-paragominas-deforestation-landgrabs-shootouts-logging-slash-burn-farming-green-sustainability" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/global-develop</span><span class="invisible">ment/2025/jan/07/brazil-amazon-paragominas-deforestation-landgrabs-shootouts-logging-slash-burn-farming-green-sustainability</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/deforestation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>deforestation</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/LoggingImpacts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LoggingImpacts</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/BellingenLogging" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BellingenLogging</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/Gleniffer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gleniffer</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/Amazon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Amazon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/biodiversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>biodiversity</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/NativeForests" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NativeForests</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/FrontierCommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FrontierCommunity</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/logging" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>logging</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/slashandburn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>slashandburn</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/NSWLogging" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NSWLogging</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/FarrRight" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FarrRight</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.au/tags/governance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>governance</span></a></p>