Trying to keep up with the latest manoeuvrings over Brazil's forest policy is rather like following the country's famous "novelas" or soap operas. Except in this case, the plot is far more complicated and bizarre. So for the benefit of those who missed this week's episodes, here is a quick(ish) synopsis:

Brazil's government delegation at the climate talks in Cancún plays a constructive role in edging towards global agreement on long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, flush with the news that Amazon deforestation has fallen to its lowest level since satellite monitoring began. Meanwhile, back in Brasilia, the leader of the governing Workers' Party in the chamber of deputies, Cândido Vaccarezza, is rumoured to have struck a deal with the Ruralistas (pro-agrobusiness lobby in Congress) that could set off a massive new wave of deforestation and jeopardise Brazil's voluntary but now domestically-binding commitment to cut greenhouse gases. He is allowing a vote (next Tuesday) on a so-called "regime of urgency" for legislation that would weaken Brazil's forest code - the rules that require landowners to keep a certain proportion of  their land in native vegetation and leave forest buffers along rivers etc. NGOs say he is allowing the changes to be fast-tracked in return for support from the Ruralistas for his bid to become house speaker when the new Congress convenes in the New Year - even though the president-elect Dilma Rousseff has pledged to veto any changes that amount to an amnesty for deforesters (which the legislation does, as currently drafted). In an interview with the magazine Época, Vaccarezza is a little less than enlightening:

Época: Did you do this against the will of the government?
Vaccarezza: I did it to avoid the bill itself being voted on this year.
Época: You mean the new [forest] code will only be voted on at the beginning of next year?
Vaccarezza: No, no. Not to be voted the beginning of next year. That's another issue. The deal I made was to vote on the urgency of the bill. Not to vote on the bill this year.
Época: That's what I asked. You will vote on the urgency of the bill and promise not to vote on the Code proposed by deputy Aldo Rebelo [the communist deputy proposing the weakening of the forest protection rules] this year....
Vaccarezze: Vote on the urgency of the bill, but not vote on the bill.
Época: And when will the bill be voted?
Vaccarezza: We have no agreement about when the bill will be voted.
Época: If it's on a regime of urgency, it will be voted at the beginning of next year?
Vaccarezza: No, no. There are bills on a regime of urgency for five years without being voted on.

Roll the credits? Not quite yet. Meanwhile back in Cancún,  Kátia Abreu, president of Brazil's National Agricutural Confederation (CNA) and also senator for the state of Tocantins - location of some of the biggest agricultural expansion into the Cerrado savanna - is speaking at the launch of a new programme of research into sustainable farming for each of Brazil's six biomes. She attacks as "useless" the so-called "legal reserve", the cornerstone of the Forest Code which requires landowners to keep at least 20% of their property (80% in the Amazon) as forest, claiming that there should be a clear separartion of land protected for nature and that used for agricultural production. "If I put a foreign body in a unit of economic production, it will muck up the works," she says. In recognition of her support of Brazil's big-farm interests, Sen. Abreu receives the Greenpeace "Golden Chainsaw" award as she walks through the conference centre in Cancún (see photo) - an honour previously given to Blairo Maggi, former governor of the state of Mato Grosso and big-time soya farmer, now also a senator.

To be continued ....