Brazil backtracks on plan to open up Amazon forest to mining

Campaigners welcome U-turn on Renca reserve but threat still exists as Brazil president has close ties to mining industry

Amazon conservation groups have hailed a victory as the Brazilian government announced a U-turn on plans to open up swaths of the the world's biggest forest to mining corporations.

President Michel Temer had sparked outrage in August when he announced a decree to abolish the Renca reserve, an area of 17,800 square miles - roughly the size of Switzerland - that is an important carbon sink and home to some of the world's richest biodiversity.