Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Hits Record Low

Only yesterday, Brazil's National Space Research Agency made it public news that, according to their most recent investigations into deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, significant progress had been made in terms of protecting the natural ecosystems in this part of the world.

Thus, it seems that, thanks to satellite monitoring and better law enforcement, the Brazilian Amazon witnessed a significant decrease in its deforestation rates.

More precisely, deforestation in these regions hit a record low, at least when compared to the data recorded since 1988 and up until present days.

Mongabay explains that, in the period of time between the beginning of August 2011 and the end of July 2012, only 1,798 square miles (4,656 square kilometers) of the forests in the Brazilian Amazon were chopped down for various purposes.

This basically means that, when compared to the figures reported in the previous year (i.e. August 2010 – July 2011), deforestation rates were successfully brought down by as much as 27%.

The Times of India quotes environmental specialist Adalberto Verissimo, who made a case of how, “Over the past several years Brazil has made a huge effort to contain deforestation and the latest figures testify to its success. The deforestation figures are extremely positive, for they point to a consistent downward trend.”

This researcher also wished to draw attention to the fact that, "The numbers disprove the argument that deforestation is necessary for the country's economy to grow. Deforestation has been dropping steadily for the past four years while the economy has grown.”

However, those in charge of monitoring the Brazilian Amazon spare no efforts showing how whatever progress has been made thus far can easily be lost to poor forest management decisions.

“But the war is far from over. We still have a lot of battles to fight and win,” Adalberto Verissimo said.

Given the fact that, much like the northern permafrost, Amazonian forests store whopping amounts of carbon (about 80 billion tonnes, according to some estimates), it need not come as a surprise that so many people are concerned about their faith.