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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Amazon
Destruction Intensifies
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
1/26/98
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The
most recent deforestation analysis for the Amazon since 1994 has
been
released. It indicates that from 1994
to 1995, deforestation
nearly
doubled, up 95%, and then decreased slightly in following years
(due
largely to unusually high rain). During
the period from 1995-
1997,
7,500 square miles a year of forest were lost on average--not
taking
into account extensive selective logging and attendant forest
degradation
which is also on the rise. Between 1978
and 1996, more
than
500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) -- or 12.5
percent
-- of the Amazon's rain forest was destroyed.
The Brazilian
government
has been accused of withholding these figures.
The data
indicates
an international ecological tragedy, which will have
ramifications
for whatever human history remains to be told.
Following
are two items, from the Associated Press and Reuters,
regarding
the release of the new data.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Title: Amazon destruction hit record in '95
before leveling off
Source: Associated Press via CNN
Status: Copyright, contact source to reprint
Date: January 26, 1998
INSET
Between
1978 and 1996, 12.5 percent of the Amazon's rain forest was
destroyed
SAO
JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (AP) -- Breaking years of silence,
Brazil's
government conceded Monday that destruction of the Amazon
rain
forest reached record levels in 1995 before finally leveling off
in the
last two years.
The
findings reinforced environmentalists' fears that the pace of
destruction
of the vital region continues to accelerate.
Until
Monday, the destruction remained shrouded in mystery: Satellite
photos
showing the devastation remained rolled up, gathering dust,
while
the government insisted it didn't have the money to analyze
them.
The most recent figures were from 1994.
Silence
suited the government, which maintained it could not say
whether
destruction was up or not until the official numbers were in.
The
latest figures show deforestation nearly doubled from 14,896
square
kms (5,958 square miles) in 1994 to 29,059 square kms (11,621
square
miles) in 1995 -- a 95 percent increase.
And,
although the rate dropped in 1996 to 18,000 square kilometers
(7,200
square miles), it was still 21 percent higher than 1994. In
1997 --
with the numbers only 80 percent complete -- the Amazon
lost
13,000 square kilometers (5,200 square miles) of forest.
Rain responsible
for slowdown
Perhaps
most alarmingly, the slowdown was largely due to abnormally
heavy
rainfall in the region rather than government policy.
"These
numbers are no reason to celebrate," Brazil's Environment
Minister
Gustavo Krause said at the presentation of the study based on
satellite
images of the forest.
But he
also credited enforcement of forest protection laws for some of
the
improvement, including a moratorium on new concessions for logging
mahogany
and virola wood enacted in 1996.
Between
1978 and 1996, more than 500,000 square kilometers (200,000
square
miles) -- or 12.5 percent -- of the Amazon's rain forest were
destroyed.
Eduardo
Martins, president of Brazil's Environmental Protection
Agency,
said the main cause of the destruction was the burning and
logging
of huge tracts of land to create grazing pastures for
livestock.
In 1995
and 1996, deforestation of small plots measuring 15 to 50
hectares
(37 to 124 acres) accounted for about a quarter of the
destruction,
he said.
"The
government will spare no efforts to strengthen its commitment to
reduce
the deforestation," said Martins. "It will intensify its
monitoring,
control and inspection of the region."
But at
the same time, he said, the government could not turn a blind
eye to
the need to develop the 5 million-square-kilometer (2 million-
square-mile)
region and improve the quality of life for its 20 million
people.
Government
promises action
He said
the government would increase aid to small farmers to diminish
their
dependency on slash-and-burn techniques and will no longer grant
land
ownership titles in areas that have been deforested without
authorization.
The government will also guarantee that no
deforestation
takes place in the 10 percent of the Amazon designated
as
nature reserves, he said.
Krause
said the government was implementing 10 new measures to protect
the
rain forest and promote its sustainable development, including
offering
credits to farmers who plant crops suited to its ecosystem
and
restricting farm credit in areas
covered
with virgin forest.
But
Joao Paulo Capobianco of the Social-Environmental Institute, a
non-governmental
organization, said the worst offenders were no longer
small
farmers but the logging industry.
Krause
admitted that international loggers, mostly from Asia, had
invested
$100 million in the region in 1997 alone. He had no figures
on how
much of the deforestation they were responsible for, but
said
the companies had been fined about $1 million for illegal logging
last
year.
ITEM #2
Title: Ravaging of Brazil's Amazon Continuing
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright, contact source to reprint
Date: January 26, 1998
Author: By James Craig
SAO
JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's Amazon rain forest
continues
to be ravaged at an alarming rate of about 7,500 square
miles a
year, according to a government survey released on Monday.
The
National Space Research Institute (INPE) study, prepared from
satellite
images, showed some 22,600 square miles of rain forest-- an
area
roughly twice the size of Belgium -- were slashed, burned and
cleared
between 1995 and 1997.
Almost
half that destruction occurred in 1995, after the introduction
in 1994
of an economic stabilization plan which apparently sparked an
expansion
of farming in the Brazilian outback.
"We
feel that that spike is closely linked to economic activity," said
Eduardo
de Souza Martins, president of the Brazilian environmental
agency
IBAMA. "Deforestation is very sensitive to economic growth," he
said.
The
survey showed the rate of deforestation had fallen sharply since
1995 to
6,810 square miles in 1996 and an estimated 4,888 square miles
last
year.
The
forest was destroyed at an average rate of 5,750 square miles
annually
from 1992 to 1994.
Although
officials acknowledged the jump in 1995 was troubling, they
said
declines in the last two years proved that government measures to
fight
deforestation were working.
Brazil's
Amazon contains the world's richest trove of biological
diversity
and scores of Indian tribes. It covers roughly 1.93 million
square
miles across nine Brazilian states, an area larger than Western
Europe.
Over
the years, loggers, ranchers and farmers have cut down 10 percent
of the
forest, or nearly 200,720 square miles .
Environmental
groups, long critical of Brazil's ability to protect the
Amazon,
had expected the INPE survey to come out last year and accused
President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration of delaying its
release
for political reasons.
On
Monday, officials denied the accusation, saying the delay was due
to
inadequate funding, problems in analyzing data and legal
complications.
"We
are insulted by suggestions that we were withholding this
information,"
INPE Director Marcio Nogueira Barbosa said.
The
study, like previous INPE reports, was based on photographs taken
from
400 miles above the earth by the U.S. Landsat satellite.
INPE
released images showing the green Amazon forest streaked with
purple,
black and yellow lines representing cleared areas.
Officials
said they identified 47 "critical areas" along an arc from
the
mouth of the Amazon River in northeastern Brazil to the western
state
of Acre, which borders Bolivia and Peru. More than 70 percent of
the
deforestation has taken place over the last three years in that
arc.
Small
plots of cleared forest accounted for most of the damage,
officials
said. But they stopped short of blaming the destruction on
subsistence
farmers.
Environmentalists
said they found little in the survey to cheer.
"This
is no good news, the only good news here is that the numbers are
finally
out," said Joao Paulo Capobianco, who heads Brazil's Socio-
Environmental
Institute.
Capobianco
said the only reason the rate of destruction had slowed was
because
of unusually heavy rains over the past two years which
interfered
with burning and logging in many areas.
He also
criticized the report for failing to take into account
widespread
selective logging which does not show up on satellite
images.
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