Brazil loses Hawaii-sized chunk of Amazon in 1999
Date: 12-Apr-00
Country: BRAZIL
The annual report on devastation of the world's largest rain forest also showed
that the pace of destruction remained mostly steady despite increased policing of
threatened areas.
Brazilian officials put a brave face on the data, saying the rates of
deforestation between 1998 and 1999 at least showed the situation was not getting
worse.
"The tendency of an increase in deforestation has been controlled," said
Environment Ministry Jose Sarney Filho. Environmental officials agreed that the
data could have been much more severe, especially given Brazil's shock
devaluation of its currency early last year.
Roberto Smeraldi, head of the Amazon protection programme at environmental group
Friends of the Earth, said deforestation could rise sharply after a devaluation
as loggers search for profits abroad.
But he added that the data also showed the severity of threats still facing the
Amazon, which alone accounts for more than half of the world's biodiversity.
"It didn't get worse. But we also can't say this is any kind of victory,"
Smeraldi said.
The Brazilian Amazon, which alone is larger than Western Europe, lost 16,926
square kilometres (6,347 square miles) of forest last year, according to
satellite imagery. The compares to 17,383 square kilometres the previous year,
with a 3 percent margin of error.
The government said in the most critical areas, or those with the highest rates
of destruction, some 13,120 square kilometres were destroyed compared with 13,474
in the previous year.