Despite
having slowed since then, deforestation in the Amazon
is "still intolerable," said Chief Minister
of the Cabinet Jose Dirceu (Ricardo Mignone, Folha de
Sao Paulo, April 7, U.N. Wire translation).
Environment
Minister Marina Silva, however, said the new level shows
progress in protecting the forest, home to up to 30 percent
of the world's animal and plant species.
"We
don't want to be overconfident, but we managed to break
the rhythm of growth (in destruction) and this is highly
significant," said Silva.
Robert
Smeraldi, director of the environmental group Friends
of the Earth Brazil, however, said annual figures on Amazon
destruction are not as important as the overall average
since the early 1990s.
"In
the 1990s, you had an average of around 12,000 square
kilometers (5,000 square miles) disappearing every year,"
Smeraldi said. "Now it is brushing up around 25,000
square kilometers (10,000 square miles). In other words,
it has almost doubled. Never in history has the tropical
rainforest disappeared at such rapid rate" (Associated
Press/CNN.com, April 7).
According
to the figures released by the government yesterday, deforestation
in areas of the Amazon protected by law increased almost
30 percent last year. The chopping down of trees in indigenous
land also increased by 57.3 percent from 2002 levels (Mignone,
Folha de Sao Paulo).
On
Friday, the Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR) released a study saying the increase in beef exports
from Brazil in recent years is responsible for the sharp
rise in deforestation of the Amazon as cattle farmers
are cutting deeper into the forests.
According
to Hamburger Connection Fuels Amazon Destruction, the
jump in the worldwide demand for Brazilian beef - free
of mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease - caused the Amazon
cattle population to more than double in 12 years, from
26 million head in 1990 to 57 million in 2002. Last year,
the country exported $1.5 billion worth of beef, compared
with $500 million in 1995. Meanwhile, the Amazon lost
58.7 million hectares of forest in 2000, compared with
41.5 million hectares in 1990 (U.N. Wire, April 2).
Last
month, the Brazilian government presented a $136 million
plan to stop deforestation in the Amazon through the use
of satellites to monitor deforestation, criminal investigations
of those suspected of destroying the forest and the creation
of new laws to curb environmental crimes (U.N. Wire, March
17).
Environmentalists,
however, said those measures are not enough.
"The
tendency is for [deforestation levels] to stay high unless
drastic measures are taken, and I don't see the government
doing anything drastic," Rosa Lemos de Sa of the
World Wide Fund for Nature Brazil said (BBC Online, April
8).
Copyright,
National Journal Group, 2004
