For the second time in six years, the Venezuelan government is preparing a land-use plan for the 9.4-million-acre (3.8-million-hectare) Imataca Forestry Reserve in northeast Venezuela, on the Guyanese border. Business and environmental advocates are watching the effort closely—partly because of Imataca’s sheer size, but also because the plan that emerges could set a precedent for government policy on other resource-rich forestry reserves here. The land-use plan marks the government’s second attempt in six years to set logging, mining and conservation ground rules for Imataca. A 1997 plan designated 10% of the reserve for conservation, 30% for mining and 56% for logging. But environmentalists blocked that plan in court, arguing that 1992 norms governing forestry-reserve activities did... [Log in to read more]