Brazil Claims Slowdown In Amazon Clearcutting - Area = Kuwait In 2006

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BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Huge tracts of Brazil's Amazon rainforest were cleared legally and illegally in the past year, but the rate of deforestation slowed, the country's environment minister said on Tuesday.

It was the second year in a row that the pace of the destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest declined. Booming demand for farm exports caused land-clearing to peak in 2004.

A slowdown in farming-driven deforestation and a crackdown on illegal logging may have contributed to the reduction in the rate. The effort, however, was hampered in part by corruption within the ranks of the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA, where some employees have been arrested in illegal logging raids.

Preliminary figures show that deforestation slowed 11 percent this year from last year, when 7,255 square miles of rainforest were cleared. Officials estimate 6,450 square miles of forest -- an area about the size of Hawaii or somewhat smaller than Kuwait -- could have been lost legally or illegally in the 2006 season, which runs from August 2005 through July 2006.

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http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=13397082&src=rss/scienceNews

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1. How much of the total Amazon region is now exposed?

...This process has been going on at an accelerated rate since the 1950's

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Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. Why is Brazil losing so much forest? What can be done to slow deforestation?

DEFORESTATION IN BRAZIL: 60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming.

Deforestation Figures for Brazil

Year Deforestation
Deforestation


1978-1988* 8158 21,130
1990 5,332 13,810
1991 4,297 11,130
1992 5,322 13,786
1993 5,950 15,410
1994 5,751 14,896
1995 11,219 29,059
1996 7,013 18,160
1997 5,034 13,040
1998 6,501 16,840
1999 6,663 17,259
2000 7,658 19,836
2001 7,027 18,130
2002 9,845 25,500
2003 9,343 24,130
2004 10,088 26,129
2005 7,298 18,900

All figures derived from official National
Institute of Space Research (INPE) figures

*For the 1978-1988 period the figures represent
the average annual rates of deforestation.

Cattle ranches 60-70%
Small-scale, subsistence agriculture 30-40%
Large-scale, commercial agriculture 1-2%
Logging, legal and illegal 2-4%
Fires, mining, urbanization, road construction, dams 2-4%
Selective logging and fires that burn under the forest canopy commonly result in forest degradation, not deforestation. Therefore these factor less in overall deforestation figures.

The above pie chart showing deforestation in the Amazon by cause is based on the median figures for estimate ranges.


Why is the Brazilian Amazon being Destroyed?
In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. A large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources. For effective action it is imperative that these issues be addressed. Focusing solely on the promotion of sustainable use by local people would neglect the most important forces behind deforestation in Brazil.
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