Amazon deforestation in dramatic decline, official figures show
Increased use of satellite data and new tactics to deter loggers have led to drop, says Brazilian environment agency
- Damian Carrington in Brasilia
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 July 2010 12.54 BST
A deforested area in the Amazonian rainforest. Government figures say deforestation is in dramatic decline. Photograph: Jefferson Ruddy/AFP/Getty Images
Large-scale deforestation in the Amazon rainforest fell dramatically last year, according to official figures released yesterday.
Data from satellite sensors making fortnightly detections of only larger areas of forest destruction (greater than 25 hectares) was 1,500km2 between August 2009 and May 2010, compared with 3,000km2 in the same period a year earlier.
The Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, which is responsible for protecting the forests against illegal logging, said the drop was due to the increased use of satellite data to spot the felling of trees and new tactics to deter loggers, including ending their ability to hide under cloud cover.
The full figures for the year and all deforestation will be published on 31 July. The areas of forest destruction are expected to be 5,000-6,000km2, down from 7,500km2 the previous year, and from 27,000km2 in 2004.
"We are winning another victory over deforestation in the world's largest and most important biome," Luciano Evaristo, director of environmental protection, told the Guardian, which had been flown to Brazil by the Brazilian government for the annoucement. "Before [satellite data] we were looking blindly. But in 2010, all 244 actions were based on smart geo-processed data."
But Evaristo agreed with critics of the government that Ibama remains understaffed, with 700-800 enforcement officers on the ground at any one time across the vast country, which is nearly four times the size of western Europe. "I wish we had 4,000," he said, adding that the satellite data was making the work of officers more effective.
The ecologist Philip Fearnside, at the National Research Institute for the Amazon in Manaus, said the decline is partly due to control measures, but also due to a drop in demand as soy and beef consumption fell and the appreciation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar made export more expensive to foreign markets. "Deforestation is not under control," he said. "Prices of commodities will go up after the global recession. When that happens you discover you do not have control."
Evaristo rejected that argument: "The figures for 2010 show high commodity prices do not lead to an increase in deforestation."
The environment minister Izabella Teixeira said: "I think several factors can explain [the drop]. We now share the responsibility with 17 ministries."
Ibama has adopted new tactics in the fight against deforestation. Only 0.32% of the 250,000 fines issued by Ibama over the last 20 years have been paid. "It is true, thanks to the Brazilian legal system," said Evarista, blaming three different appeal systems.
Ibama seizes the tools and equipment of suspected illegal loggers while the legal process plays out, and also blocks their access to government credit, which is proving highly effective.
The ranchers can no longer hide under clouds either. Until recently, only visible light satellite images were taken. "The ranchers knew Ibama was much less active on the ground during the cloudy season," said the satellite data manager George Ferreira. Now, radar surveillance means the felling of trees can be spotted from space, rain or shine, day or night.
Raquel Taitson, an armed enforcement officer who has been attacked with an axe and had to escape being run down by a car, said she is driven by the desire to protect the forest. "My father is usually more scared than me, so usually I don't tell him. But we need more officers. We also have other tasks, such as controlling animal trafficking and illegal fishing."
A study published last week by the influential Chatham House thinktank said illegal logging dropped by between 50 and 75% across Cameroon, Indonesia and the Brazilian Amazon over the last decade.
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+44 (0)20 3353 2000About this article
CloseAmazon deforestation in dramatic decline, official figures show
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.54 BST on Friday 23 July 2010. A version appeared on p25 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Saturday 24 July 2010. It was last modified at 14.00 BST on Tuesday 27 July 2010.
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- (3915288)
-->The Guardian publishes some good news on the environmental front? Whatever next!
Three cheers anyway! If only because the author somehow resisted using the words "climate change".
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-->Good news! It should be km² though, not km2.
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- (3836830)
-->told the Guardian, which had been flown to Brazil by the Brazilian government for the annoucement.
Seems to me like whatever achievement the Brazilian Government has made in protecting the Amazon and reducing carbon emissions from deforestation, it has void by flying goodness knows how many media representatives over for the blimming announcement! What in the world next?!?
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-->It's much better than we thought!
The Guardian IS capable of optimism-mongering after all!
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-->The Guardian IS capable of optimism-mongering after all!
Well it would be a little easier if there was more positive news to write about! Unfortunately the human race appears to be much more at home destroying, polluting, exploiting or killing anything it comes into contact with.
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-->Seems to me like whatever achievement the Brazilian Government has made in protecting the Amazon and reducing carbon emissions from deforestation, it has void by flying goodness knows how many media representatives over for the blimming announcement! What in the world next?!?
What absolute nonsense.
And don't worry Sustainalogic, you will get your bad news if the proposed changes to Brazil's excellent Forest Code are introduced this year.
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-->This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.
- (3067868)
-->ONLY 1,500 km?
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- (3067868)
-->Just to translate the comment above...
This figure is open to dispute. Furthermore, a sizeable faction within Brazilian congress known as the 'ruralists' are proposing a motion that will LEGALLY ALLOW deforestation- an international scandal.
Thanks for sharing, Davinianas.
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-->Yep, exactly Cromagnon.
Under the existing forest code a landholder in the Amazon is allowed to legally deforest only 20% of his land. Under changes proposed by the Ruralistas this figure will be 50%.
However, legally, at the moment landholders in Atlantic Forest or Cerrado are allowed to chop much more (80 and 65 % respectively).
See this piece from Sian Herbert
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/30/amazon-brazil
and others
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- (3010388)
-->Not so much good news as not as bad news as it has been.
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-->We should have this article stuffed!
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-->It will only be good news when the amount of forest cover increases again. Until then, as Dorlomin says, it's just less bad, bad news.
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-->@Monkeybiz
It will only be good news when the amount of forest cover increases again. Until then, as Dorlomin says, it's just less bad, bad news.
Amount of native forest increases. At the moment a sizeable proportion of reforestation projects (I'll try and find the figures) can be forestry which in Brasil usually means eucalyptus which is not as bad as ranching but almost.
And, sorry to be negative, but cutting one's throat at half the speed is hardly a revelation of new-found sanity now is it?
Still, they're trying!
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-->10 years ago I went to the Brasilian Amozan
and from the moment you got off the plane you could smell the burning wood in any city in the region, and from the air you could always see a huge fire burning.IBAMA are smart but they do not get enough resources for the scale of the job.
The ranchers I stayied with felled the trees in the week, and burnt the trees on Sundays since they do not burn standing, It cost around 300$ a hector to clear and plant giant african grass, the wood cost more than that per m3 if they could get it out to the coast, but they burnt it anway because the land without trees was worth 10 x more in just 18 months. I know people in the UK who buy forest here clear it and put industrial units on it by the hector and the fines are meaningless compered to the profits. So how can we expect Brasil to be differnet when they are under pressure to deforest by EU grants for roads and far eastern markets for timber and fish with Jappanese and Chinese companies. We need an IBAMA in the UK to save what little is left here in the south east England.
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-->The Brazilian government wouldn't say otherwise so I don't believe a word of it.
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-->Guys, you have already chopped down 80% of your forests, what do you Brits intend to do about this?
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- (2373235)
-->All in all, even considering all the ifs, buts and maybes, this is great news. The destruction of the rainforests is one of the most horrible phenomenons of our age and a decrease instead of an increase of this process is an achievement that deserves praise and encouragement.
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-->dorlomin, Monkeybiz and straighttalkingjack: Thanks for being the few faint voices of logic and clarity in this thread, among the Pollyannas who can't tell a relative figure from an absolute one. What matters is that there's still less Amazon rainforest now than a year ago; as straighttalkingjack said so well, "cutting one's throat at half the speed is hardly a revelation of new-found sanity".
What's more,the new figures are only for clearings larger than 25ha. Are there data for smaller areas? If so, are they omitted because they'd make the results look less-positive? Worse, if 25ha is a cutoff for the data-gathering - for example, the affordable resolution of their satellite monitoring - then anyone clearing a smaller block has been missed. Collectively a bunch of small clearings could still amount to a lot of destroyed forest. It's not yet time for complacency, let alone celebration.
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-->There's some hope there then I guess - One good thing about the global recession anyway decreases demand which in turn is good for the enviroment and sustainable living.
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-->There was an easy way to increase the size of the worlds forests.
Many years ago a forest was anywhere with more than 40% of land covered by canopy. Then they made it 10%. Instantly increasing the size of forest globally with the stroke of a pen.
Pity we cant do that again.
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-->So it's not being destroyed as fast as it was, and we have to call that progress.
The satellite surveillance helps, but what really makes a difference is enforcement-- the political will and the money to back it up, and a lack of corruption and/or indifference.
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-->As previously noted the new Forest Code, which will almost certainly become law will put an end to this breathing space. Strange bedfellows indeed, communists and ranchers have come together to destroy one of the best environmental protection laws ever to have been implemented.
The day Brazil was to have played in the semi-finals of the world cup, (they never made it that far) this outdated forest code amendment was voted through to go to the Senate. If Brazil had played no one would have known about it!
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-->What few people outside of Brazil know is that approximately two Amazon has been destroyed in that country, is now in the process of destruction of the third and last Amazon of Brazil. The current Amazon is situated in the northern region of the country, but also biodiversity or even richer already been present in southern, southeastern, northeastern, and central west of the country with an area of nearly 9 million square kilometers. Many people have helped destroy the vast forests that existed in the south for example. At the beginning of last century English and japanese were in the state of Parana, where there was a huge forest of Araucaria trees, monumental trees over 200 years old, thousands of miles of forests were decimated by sawmills, much wood was sent to other countries, the forest is gone, but towns were built Maringá, Londrina, or as the Brits called it Little London, now more than 500 000 inhabitants began to be built just 80 years in the same place where there was already an Amazon. Today the state of Parana has about 10 million inhabitants and is the largest food producer in Brazil, with approximately 20% of all domestic production, although it is one of the smallest states in Brazil, there are many descendants of Russians, Japanese, English, Dutch, Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Poles, French, and other parts of the world living in this place where the forest still existed, they would not be in this place.
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-->cromagnon
ONLY 1,500 km?
Well at least it's smaller than Wales.
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- (2676160)
-->Good news indeed.
Now lets let it grow back to absorb some of this CO2 we've been polluting the air with.
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-->This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.
- (4040341)
-->Cutting our throat at half the speed. What an apt image.
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-->At last some good news on this front.
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-->Well, now that we know that, to avoid more forest being felled a lot more staff and apparatuses are needed, how much and when exactly is the British government going to contribute for that??? Oh, I forgot that in the UK roughly 70% of the original vegetation has been preserved, so the UK doesn't need to contribute with anything to "save our future existance"...ehr, right...
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