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2008-08-31 14:57:14
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press WriterSat Aug 30, 8:25 PM ET
Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months the first such
increase in three years as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers
and ranchers to raze trees, officials said Saturday.
Some 8,147 square kilometers (3,145 square miles) of forest were destroyed
between August 2007 and August 2008 a 69 percent increase over the 4,820
square kilometers (1,861 square miles) felled in the previous 12 months,
according to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which monitors
destruction of the Amazon.
"We're not content," Environment Minister Carlos Minc said. "Deforestation has
to fall more and the conditions for sustainable development have to improve."
Brazil's government has increased cash payments to fight illegal Amazon logging
this year, and it eliminated government bank loans to farmers who illegally
clear forest to plant crops.
The country lost 2.7 percent of its Amazon rain forest in 2007, or 11,000
square kilometers (4,250 square miles). Environmental officials fear even more
land will be razed this year but they have not forecast how much.
Minc says monthly deforestation rates have slowed since May, but environmental
groups say seasonal shifts in tree cutting make the annual number a more
accurate gauge.
Most deforestation happens in March and April, the start of Brazil's dry
season, and routinely tapers off in May, June and July: Last month, 323 square
kilometers (125 square miles) of trees were felled, 61 percent less than the
area razed in June.
Environmentalists also argue that INPE's deforestation report wasn't designed
to give accurate monthly figures, but to alert and direct the government to
deforestation hot spots in time to save the land.
The Amazon region covers about 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million
square miles) of Brazil, nearly 60 percent of the country. About 20 percent of
that land has already been deforested.