AMAZON  (CONT)

jungle over to rapacious commercial enterprises, mostly foreign ones. Environmental groups say that was a politically inspired mischaracterization of the measure, whose ultimate success would depend on the government's ability and willingness to compel compliance.

"The underlying intent is to be able to govern timber extraction, but it's not clear to me that a concession system will be able to do that," said Stephan Schwartzman of Environmental Defense, who visited the area of conflict last month. "We know, for example, that timber concessions in Indonesia have done nothing for the forest or local indigenous communities."

The government's environmental agency has always complained that a chronic lack of money and manpower prevents it from enforcing laws that, though they look tough on paper, are widely ignored. "The timber harvest itself starts in June," with the arrival of the Amazon dry season, Mr. Adario said, "so we are going to have to wait to see if we have a legal harvest this year."

"Everybody is positioning their tanks," he said. "The real combat is from here on in."

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