Brazil Starts Campaign Against Amazon Deforestation
8/4/99
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Title: Brazil Starts Campaign Against Amazon Deforestation
Source: Reuters Limited
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 4, 1999
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazil on Tuesday launched a campaign
to monitor illegal logging and fires destroying the Amazon rainforest
in a joint operation between the army and the government's
Environment Agency Ibama).
Six helicopters from the army's Ground Operations Command will assist
Ibama in surveying the major deforestation zone in central Brazil, an
area more than twice the size of France.
The operation, due to last through November, will involve some 360
inspectors and cover an area of 540,000 square miles (1.4 million
square km) stretching across seven states, Ibama President Marilia
Marreco told reporters at the Brasilia air force base.
It coincides with the peak of Brazil's dry season, when farmers
traditionally burn land to prepare it for planting ahead of the rainy
season, frequently triggering forest fires which then rage out of
control.
But Marreco said the number of hot spots -- areas where there is a
very high probability that a fire is burning -- had fallen compared
to last year, especially in the high risk area straddling the north
of Mato Grosso and south of Para states.
"The situation is still under control," she said.
Satellite images showed there were 2,623 hot spots in July, down from
7,316 in the same month in 1998, Ibama said in a statement. In Mato
Grosso, hot spots were down to 1,163 in July from 3,352 during the
same period last year.
Marreco said the agency was also hoping the Senate would approve the
release of an additional $3.5 million in funds from the Group of
Seven rich nations, which would allow it to boost its battle on the
ground.
"We will be able to send more people, there will be the possibility
also of buying equipment, vehicles, and also the question of
(funding) a system of information to control the traffic of forest
products in the region," she said.