Brazil stripped a vast Amazon nature reserve of its protected status in a move that could expand mining in the region, in a decree published Wednesday.

The four million-hectare reserve is home to indigenous people but also rich in gold and manganese.

Established in 1984 under the then military dictatorship, the reserve's protected status restricted mining activities to state companies.

Wednesday's decree stressed that it does not override other existing environmental protection laws.

But campaign groups such as the World Wildlife Fund have expressed concern about the environmental threat to the reserve from potential mining projects.

A report by the mining ministry in April said that lifting the protected status could provide "access to minerals potentially existing in the region" by letting private companies operate there.

The mining department in Amapa, one of the states home to the reserve, said environmental institutions were supervising the plans.

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How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest
Princeton NJ (SPX) Aug 23, 2017
In the mid-1990s, 1,000 truckloads of orange peels and orange pulp were purposefully unloaded onto a barren pasture in a Costa Rican national park. Today, that area is covered in lush, vine-laden forest. A team led by Princeton University researchers surveyed the land 16 years after the orange peels were deposited. They found a 176 percent increase in aboveground biomass - or the wood in t ... read more

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