The Brazilian government stands accused of selling off huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest - including its oldest protected national park - to unscrupulous logging companies, under the cover of a flawed sustainable development project.

The Brazilian President, Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, won power in 2003 with a promise to settle 400,000 homeless families during his four-year term, an unrealistic target he is accused of reaching in last-minute deals prior to last year's election.

An eight-month investigation by Greenpeace into the land scam, revealed that the Brazilian land reform agency, INCRA, had set up large settlements in rainforest areas instead of placing them in already deforested areas, and settling urban families who promptly sold logging rights to major timber conpanies.

In 2006, INCRA created 97 "sustainable development settlements" (PDS) in Santarém in the west of the Amazonian state of Pará, in areas of primary forest of huge value to loggers. These settlements cover 2.2 million hectares and have been assigned to 33,700 families.

As well as politicians, the scheme benefits the settlers, who receive land and sell their logging rights to large timber firms; the loggers, who gain access to valuable timber; and INCRA, which is close to reaching the government targets.

Only last week the Brazilian government boasted a drop in deforestation levels for the third year running; it has now opened the floodgates to increased deforestation and its knock-on effect on global climate change.

Brazil is the world's fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. A large proportion of emissions come from deforestation in the Amazon and 15 per cent of all deforestation is caused by the creation of land settlements.

INCRA is creating settlements so quickly it cannot afford to provide the necessary infrastructure for residents. It is cutting corners by encouraging residents' associations to make deals with logging companies, who provide roads and sanitation.

The PDS concept was conceived in 1999 by Raimundo Lima, a director of INCRA, as a way of sustaining traditional families and enabling them to live off the land. Each family was to receive housing and a number of financial credits to get them started along with the permission to farm 20 per cent of their land and log the remaining 80 per cent in accordance with a strict forest management plan. These plans are now dictated by the loggers, which means they can flaunt sustainable logging guidelines and pay way under market value for the timber.

The Amazon has long been under threat from large industry: logging companies clear-cut the dense jungle before farmers move on to the land to raise cattle; huge soy plantations then exhaust the soil.

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