Amazon rain forest protection expanded

? Brazil announced plans to expand protection of the Amazon rain forest – while also calling on rich nations to do more to protect the environment.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blamed industrialized nations for the “unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.”

“It is unacceptable that poorer nations continue to suffer the main burden of environmental degradation,” he said Monday.

His remarks came at the opening of three days of high-level talks at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity, sponsored by the United Nations.

Brazil’s Environmental Ministry said late Sunday that 84,000 square miles of the Amazon rain forest – an area about the size of Kansas – would be declared a protected zone over the next three years.