Brazil says Amazon Deforestation Slows Down
Date: 29-Aug-05
Country: BRAZIL
Using data obtained by satellite, the government estimated that 3,515 square miles (9,106 square km) were razed in the world's largest tropical forest between August 2004 and July 2005, down sharply from 7,229 square miles (18,724 square km) in the same period a year earlier.
Officials attributed the drop to a government action plan launched last year aimed at curbing illegal logging in the Amazon, home to an estimated 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species.
"We have absolute certainty that the good indicators will continue to depend on the implementation of the action plan," said Dilma Roussef, a senior Cabinet member coordinating the government's environmental task force.
The announcement came less than three months after the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who came to power in 2003 with the backing of environmentalists, released official data showing that the Amazon rainforest was destroyed at a near-record pace in 2003-2004.
In that period, 10,088 square miles (26,130 sq km) -- an area larger than the US state of New Jersey -- were destroyed, compared with 9,496 square miles (24,597 square km) a year earlier. The worst year on record was 1994-1995, when 11,216 square miles (29,050 square km) were cleared.
Although environmental groups praised the government's efforts to save the rain forest, some warned the pace of deforestation could easily rise again if commodity prices recover, giving farmers an incentive to clear more land.
"With the drop in profitability faced by the (agricultural) sector, the reduction in deforestation is, unfortunately, less the result of government action than the current economic situation," the Brazilian chapter of the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.