Since the Iraq war began, accusations of US military designs on the Amazon are often invoked to denigrate environmentalists and their complaints about government policy. At hearings late last year on a proposed dam on the Madeira River, proponents distributed a map showing what they said were US "forward-operations locations" in the region meant to block Brazil's development, including military bases and advisers in Bolivia and Venezuela, two countries not exactly on friendly terms with the Bush administration.
Some of the material circulating has been traced to right-wing nationalist groups sympathetic to the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. But in an unusual instance of former adversaries agreeing, organizations on the extreme left - even in the governing Workers' Party - have also endorsed the notion of a foreign plot to seize the Amazon, as have some active duty segments of the military.
"Everything indicates that the environmental and indigenous problems are merely pretexts," said a recent Brazilian military intelligence report, which was made available to the New York Times by a Brazilian who received a copy and who was concerned at the views expressed. "The main NGOs are, in reality, pieces in the great game in which the hegemonic powers are engaged to maintain and augment their domination. Certainly, they serve as cover for those secret services."
In reality, Perl, the WWF coordinator, said, his organization hopes merely to create a buffer around the nature reserve here through the creation of a larger "Rio Negro Conservation Bloc." He said the idea was to protect the existing reserve by helping existing Indian reservations, state parks and nature reserves along the banks of the river to operate more effectively.
By 2012, Perl said, his organization and its partners hope to bring an area larger than California into the system. A fund administered by a Brazilian foundation that aims to raise US$390 million and includes donations from the German government and others has been created.
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