Amazon Deforestation At Record Pace

by Mario Osava

(IPS) RIO DE JANEIRO -- The near-record rate of deforestation in the Amazon jungle last year has sparked an outcry from environmentalists in Brazil and around the world, but some charge that the true extent of destruction is even greater than the figures released Wednesday by the Brazilian government.

The latest deforestation figures even prompted the Green Party to announce Thursday that it was pulling out of the ruling coalition.

Adalberto Verissimo of the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (IMAZON), a non-governmental research agency, told IPS that the clearing of 26,130 square km of the Amazon rainforest last year marks the continuation of an "unacceptable" trend seen in the course of the current decade.

While the average deforestation rate for the previous two decades up until the year 2000 was 17,000 square km annually, that average has risen to over 24,000 square km in the last three years.

The destruction registered in 2004 was 6.2 percent greater than in 2003, when 24,597 square km were deforested.

The latest reading covered the period from August 2003 to August 2004, and was carried out through the use of satellite images by the National Space Research Institute (INPE).

But Roberto Smeraldi, coordinator of the Friends of the Earth-Amazonia -- a Brazilian affiliate of the international environmental watchdog -- told IPS that the figures released Wednesday by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Amazon Deforestation "are not credible," and that the real rate would be much closer to the all-time record of 29,059 square km reached in the 1994/1995 period.

He bases his allegations on the government's claims that there was no deforestation last year in the northern Brazilian states of Amapa and Roraima.

"Zero deforestation in those states is impossible," Smeraldi said, given that Roraima is experiencing a heavy influx of immigrants, while municipal governments in Amapa identified destruction of the forests and slash-and-burn land clearing techniques as the state's worst environmental problem in a research study conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, released May 13.

Friends of the Earth-Amazonia believes that the extent of deforestation last year could have been underestimated by up to 15 percent, because the new methodology used to measure forest destruction classifies areas that are hidden by clouds -- and can therefore not be viewed in satellite images -- as areas where forests are still intact.

INPE denies these allegations, and claims that it "amply" compensated for the cloud-covered areas, reducing the margin of error to five percent.

Verissimo predicts that the deforestation figures for 2005 will remain high, because the destruction that will be measured "has already happened." Logging normally takes place in the Amazon during the dry season, from May through December. Moreover, the problem worsens when the economy grows, and Brazil registered strong growth of 5.3 percent last year, he added.

In addition, satellite photos and research studies reveal that while the destruction was formerly concentrated along a strip of land known as the "deforestation arch," it has now spread to other areas, particularly in the last four years, which creates further obstacles for efforts to monitor and stop the clearing of forested areas.

Nevertheless, Verissimo believes that in the long run, the government's strategy of creating large forest conservation areas and the proposed new legislation to establish proper management of publicly-owned forested land will succeed in curbing deforestation.

The new legislation, which is expected to be adopted in the near future, will make the logging industry an "ally" of conservation by promoting a "forestry economy" -- the only way to block the advance of destructive activities, which have been more profitable until now, he explained.

Much of the destruction that has occurred in recent years has been a result of the expansion of large-scale agribusiness, especially soya farming, which is highly lucrative and backed by significant financial and technological resources.

Verissimo believes that the future of the Amazon region will depend on the "triad" formed by the forestry economy, conservation areas and activities that cause deforestation, like agriculture and cattle farming.

For his part, Smeraldi fears that the government and the public will become inured to the massive amount of deforestation registered every year, which will simply become a "macabre routine."

The latest figures, he noted, were quietly released late Wednesday night, and the alarming level of deforestation recorded was largely downplayed.

The proper response to this critical situation would be a call to the nation to mobilise in defense of the Amazon rainforest, by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva himself, Smeraldi maintained.

While Environment Minister Marina Silva acknowledged that the area of land deforested last year was "very large," she couched her comments in an optimistic projection that these high rates of destruction would be reduced in coming years thanks to the "structural, lasting and effective" measures adopted by the current leftist government.

But dashed expectations for the Lula administration's environmental policies led the Green Party to declare Thursday that it was withdrawing from the coalition that brought the president, a former trade unionist, to power.

The latest Amazon deforestation figures were the last straw, after the authorization granted for planting transgenic seeds and importing used tires, and the plans to build a new nuclear power plant and to divert water from the Sao Francisco River to the semi-arid northeast, stated the Green Party, which is represented in the Brazilian Congress by seven deputies out of a total of 513.