Brasília – Illegal logging in the Amazônia Legal (Legal Amazon) has reached the lowest figure since the region started being monitored by the government, in 1998. According to figures disclosed on Tuesday (27) by Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira, the question of the deforested area dropped from 6,400 square kilometres to 4,600 square kilometres a year.
The results refer to the period from August 2011 to July 2012, as against the 12 months before. “This is the lowest rate of deforestation in history. There is a great target, which is reducing deforestation to less than 5,000 square kilometres,” said the Minister.
“I would dare say that this is the only environmental good news that the planet has received this year in the point of view of climate change. With regard to engagements for voluntary emission targets we are very advanced,” he added.
The voluntary target defined by the government of Brazil includes lowering the illegal deforestation of the Amazon to 3,900 square kilometres by 2020.
The reduction recorded by satellite by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) represents a 27% drop in the area degraded by illegal logging, in comparison with the previous period. The interval of these 12 months is consolidated every year in the Inpe’s Project for Monitoring of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Prodes).
*Translated by Mark Ament
