Amazon deforestation jumps in the second half of 2007
Amazon deforestation jumps in the second half of 2007
mongabay.com
January 24, 2008
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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose sharply in the second half of 2007 as a result of surging prices for beef and grain, said a top Brazilian environmental official.
Speaking in Brasilia, Gilberto Camara, head of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks deforestation in the Amazon via satellite, said that 3,235 sq km of rainforest was destroyed between August and December 2007 and warned that the preliminary figure was likely to double as satellite images with higher resolution are analyzed.
“We’ve never before detected such a high deforestation rate at this time of year,” Camara told a news conference in Brasilia.
Most of the clearing occurred in November and December in the states of Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia where most of the Amazon’s cattle and soy is produced.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by more than 60 percent between 2004 and 2007.
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Deforestation in the Amazon is increasingly correlated with commodity prices. When grain and beef prices are high, large-scale agroindustry expands production by clearing large swathes of rainforest. At the same time, small landholders are displaced and move into frontier forest areas. Scientists say U.S. corn ethanol subsidies are indirectly driving deforestation by buoying the grain prices and thereby providing an impetus for forest conversion for agriculture in the Amazon as well as other parts of the world.
In an effort to slow deforestation, last month the Brazilian government announced it would crack down on the sale of farm products from illegally deforested areas in the Amazon. The presidential decree imposes fines and threatens credit access to landowners for buying or trading soy, beef, and other products produced on illegally deforested lands. Brazil will support the effort by creating a landholder registry and sending 700 more federal police to the region, parts of which have seen violent disputes over land.
The rise in deforestation comes after a three year decline in forest clearing. Between 2004 and 2007, deforestation rates in Brazil fell by more than sixty percent. Felling between
August 1, 2006 and July 30, 2007 was the lowest since the Brazilian government started tracking deforestation on a yearly basis in 1988.
Influence of soy prices (CPI-adjusted, 12-month moving average) on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Deforestation in the states of Mato Grosso and Para has shown a particularly strong correlation to soy prices in recent years. All figures in hectares (2.47 acres).
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