Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Jumps in 1998

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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2/11/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Arghh! Brazilian deforestation is up 27%!

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Deforestation In Brazil's Amazon Jumps In 1998

Source: Reuters

Date: February 11, 1999

Byline: William Schomberg

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil increased

nearly 30 percent in 1998, despite new measures to curb destruction of

the world's largest rainforest, the Brazilian government said

Wednesday.

Preliminary figures from satellite monitoring showed 6,500 square

miles (16,800 square km) of forest -- more than half the size of

Belgium -- was cleared last year.

That was 27 percent higher than in 1997 but slightly lower than in

1996, the Environment Ministry said.

The latest figures took deforestation in the Amazon since 1972 to

205,385 square miles (532,086 square km), equivalent to 13.3 percent

of the entire Amazon region or an area roughly equivalent to France,

the ministry said in a statement.

A ministry spokeswoman said the figures were an estimate and would be

confirmed over the next year.

``It could be that they are correct, but also they might be

incorrect,'' the spokeswoman said.

New Environment Minister Jose Sarney Filho was quoted in the ministry

statement as saying he would focus on the problems of poor Brazilians

living in the Amazon as a means of slowing the rate of destruction.

Environmental group, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said the

figures showed Brazil's government was unable to bring deforestation

under control.

``The new increase in the deforestation rate of the Amazon shows that

the government has failed in its fight against this damaging

practice,'' the WWF said in a statement.

It said the latest figures were perhaps an underestimate because

satellites monitoring the forest could only spot deforested areas of

more than 14.8 acres (six hectares) and therefore did not pick up

smaller clearings.

The WWF said several measures to curb deforestation announced by the

government in January 1998 had not worked.

Those measures included new restrictions on the use of fire to clear

jungle -- a move which was effectively vetoed by President Fernando

Henrique Cardoso afterward -- and new legislation for the forestry

industry which has yet to take effect, the WWF statement said.

Furthermore, a plan announced by Cardoso in April last year to protect

10 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been put on hold after

$300,000 in World Bank funding was held up by Brazilian government

paperwork, the WWF said.

ITEM#2

Title: Amazon Clearing on the Rise, Scientists Says

Source: Associated Press

Date: February 10, 1999

SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (AP) -- The destruction of the Amazon rainforest

is on the rise again after falling to a six-year low in 1997, Brazilian

scientists said Wednesday.

Preliminary figures from the National Space Research Institute showed that

6,500 square miles of forest -- an area larger than Connecticut -- were

destroyed last year, up from 5,100 square miles in 1997.

But the total devastation is certainly higher. The institute didn't count

areas destroyed by forest fires, including a massive prairie fire in the

northern state of Roraima last year that ravaged more than 4,200 square miles.

Thelma Krug, who heads the institute's earth observation department, said the

data measures only the actual clearing of land by loggers, farmers and cattle

ranchers.

Since 1978, Brazil's Amazon has shrunk by 205,439 square miles _ more than 10

percent of its original size. Some scientists believe the destruction of the

world's largest wilderness could accelerate global warming.

The TM Landsat satellite images from 1997 showed that 45 percent of the

destroyed area was primary forest, while the rest was mostly savanna or fringe

area that already had been cleared, Krug said.

The data from last year are still being analyzed, and no breakdown was

available, she said.

The latest numbers are an improvement from 1995, when forest destruction hit a

single-year record of 11,220 square miles. The low was 4,300 square miles in

1991, when a recession slowed the economy.

Still, environmentalists said the upswing last year indicates repression isn't

working.

"This shows that the government has failed in combating deforestation," said

Ulisses Lacava, spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund office in Brasilia, the

capital. "What we need is a comprehensive plan for forest management."

The data on deforestation now goes to the government's environmental

protection agency, known as Ibama, which is in charge of enforcing the law.

The new environment minister, Jose Sarney Filho, said his office was trying to

discover the reason for last year's figures and implied that the numbers were

misleading.

"I'm not questioning the data, but we don't know if deforestation actually

rose or if our monitoring improved," Sarney Filho said in Brasilia.

Another question is how budget cuts will affect the environment. Brazil has

promised the International Monetary Fund it will cut spending sharply this

year to reduce its deficit and qualify for a $41.5 billion aid package.

"We hope we can continue with our work, despite the current economic

difficulties," said the institute's director, Marcio Nogueira Barbosa.

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