Amazon Deforestation Rate Slowing

While the Amazon Rainforest is still being destroyed at an alarming rate, Brazil's environmental minister said the rate is declining. Reports show that 6,450 square miles were destroyed this year. This is a decrease of 11 percent from last year. To put this in perspective this is the size of Hawaii.

This shows it wasn't just a cyclical reduction," Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference.

The official deforestation report, based on a more detailed satellite reading, will be ready by year's end.

Brazil's chaotic legal system and its large informal economy have not helped the fight against deforestation. Illegal loggers often use fake permits and land titles to harvest trees and then sell the cleared land to farmers or ranchers.

Silva, whose parents were rubber-tappers in the rainforest state of Acre, pledged to fight illegal logging when she became environment minister in 2003.

But deforestation surged during her first year in office as local demand for timber and global demand for soy and beef tempted people deeper into the rainforest.

Nearly 10,620 square miles -- an area about the size of Massachusetts and Albania -- were cleared from August 2003 to July 2004.

Corruption inside Brazil's park service IBAMA has been part of the problem. Some 100 IBAMA employees have been arrested since mid-2003 in raids that have uncovered more than a dozen illegal logging rings.

The latest bust was announced on Tuesday. Police dismantled a group using front companies to harvest timber from protected areas in the western states of Rondonia and Mato Grosso. Seven IBAMA employees were involved.

Environmental groups in Brazil largely applaud Silva's efforts, although some say they would like to see more attention given to replanting already deforested land.

To date, nearly 270,290 square miles of Amazon rainforest have been cleared, said Joao Paulo Capobianco, the Ministry's secretary of biodiversity. That represents about 17.5 percent of the rainforest, or an area equal to Texas in size and somewhat bigger than Turkey.

For more information see http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060906/sc_nm/environment_brazil_amazon_dc_1

Perhaps the rate is slowing, but is it slowing enough?

Tags: amazon rainforest, deforestation, brazil rainforest, amazon rain forest, brazil