Friday, August 3, 2012

Deforestation slows across Brazilian Amazon

Environment News Service: Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is slowing down according to an analysis of satellite images released today by Brazil's National Space Research Institute, INPE. Environment Minister Izabella Teixeria said the slowing trend in deforestation is a result of strengthened enforcement efforts and monitoring initiatives by the Brazilian government, including renewed cooperation with national intelligence agencies.

Data from INPE's Real Time Detection System show that across the country's Amazon region there was an estimated 23 percent reduction from August 2011 to July 2012. An area of 2,049 square kilometers of forest were cleared during this period as compared with 2,679 km2 the previous year.

In the last four months, the reduction in deforestation was 50 percent, compared with the same period in 2011. "This is a great result, which makes us want to work even harder to tackle illegal deforestation," said Teixeira.

In certain critical states there was even less forest cleared during the same 12 month period. The new data show a decrease in deforestation of 67 percent in Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhão; 45 percent in Amazonas state, located in the northwestern corner of the country; and 42 percent in Brazil's southwesternmost state of Acre as well as in the northern state of Pará.

Yet in the northern state of Roraima the satellite data show a 218 percent increase in deforestation over the same 12 months. Teixeria announced that the municipalities of Alta Foresta and Santana do Araguaia have been removed from the ministry's list of priority areas for prevention and control of deforestation for their good performance in 2012....

From 1834-1839, Jean Baptiste Debret's "Jungle in the Paraíba do Sul river margins."

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