Sao Paulo - Brazilian environmentalists staged a mock funeral for the Amazon rainforest to warn that agricultural expansion was suffocating the so-called "lungs of the world".
Hundreds of mourners followed a casket through Sao Paulo's crowded Ibirapuera Park, clutching seedlings of the native Ipe tree instead of candles to protest against devastation of the world's largest tropical forest.
Last week the Brazilian Congress shelved a draft Bill that would cut the legally protected Amazon reserve area to 50 per cent from 80 per cent of the total.