Increase in rate of Brazilian Amazon deforestation raises alarm
Figures released this week point to an apparent rise in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the last year, an ominous development that one researcher attributed to an increase in cattle ranching aimed at the U.S. market.
The newly lost forest, nearly 2,000 square miles, amounts to an area about the size of Delaware.
The report was published by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research and is based on satellite data used to monitor day-to-day changes in Amazon forest cover. The figures represent the largest loss of forest recorded by the system in six years.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon peaked in 2003-04, when the loss of a devastating 10,700 square miles was recorded, but the losses fell to less than 2,000 square miles annually following strategies put in place in 2008 by then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Official figures have shown a steady decline since then, hitting a low in 2012 of 1,764 square miles.
This week's figures, however, indicate an increase to 1,977 square miles over the last 12 months.
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http://www.latimes.com/world/brazil/la-fg-brazil-deforestation-20150903-story.html
