Brazil Declares 10,000 Sq Km Of Amazon Rainforest As “Protected Area”
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Nearly 10,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest land is now under the “protection” of the Brazilian government, announced officials on Monday, claiming that they would allow only for sustainable development in the area in a bid to halt deforestation.
Nearly 10,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest land is now under the “protection” of the Brazilian government, announced officials on Monday, claiming that they would allow only for sustainable development in the area in a bid to halt deforestation.
In a statement cited by the Associated Press, the Brazilian environment ministry noted that the designated “protected area” was just slightly smaller than the nation of Lebanon, while efforts had already been ongoing to slow the pace of deforestation in the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
The ministry said that subsistence farmers would still be allowed to use the forest in ways that won’t destroy it, while forestry companies must employ modern farming techniques that increase production using less land, ending the need to clear more forest for fields.
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Satellite imagery produced by Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research last year showed that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon actually dropped by 27 percent from 2011 to 2012 – marking the lowest rate of deforestation since official records began in 1988.
The space institute also said that Brazil was on course to meet its 2020 target of reducing deforestation by 80 percent from 1990 levels, while cutting-edge satellite monitoring technology would be used in the future to detect illegal logging and slash-and-burn activities.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian military has also committed resources to protecting the rainforest. Presently, Brazil’s navy patrols the Amazon’s river basin and its 7,49km coastline with a blue-water force developed under the National Defence Strategy unveiled in 2008.
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“Over the past several years Brazil has made a huge effort to contain deforestation and the latest figures testify to its success,” said Adalberto Verissimo, a senior researcher at Imazon, an environmental watchdog agency, to the Associated Press last year.
[quote]”The deforestation figures are extremely positive, for they point to a consistent downward trend… The numbers disprove the argument that deforestation is necessary for the country’s economy to grow,” adding, “deforestation has been dropping steadily for the past four years while the economy has grown.”[/quote]
