14 DAY TRIAL // New figures released by the Brazilian government show that the deforestation in the Amazon decreased by 47.5% over the last 12 months.
This decline is showed by images taken by a low-resolution satellite, and the figure is the highest since anti-deforestation measures began in 1988.
If this data is confirmed by a second set of satellites, the decrease would be of 90 percent in lost forest area since the peak in 2004.
Greg Asner, a satellite expert with the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University says that he has no doubt that the trend is real.
“I think the results are pretty strong for a big additional decrease in deforestation, [and] I am really pleased to see it.”
This new information comes within a month of the presidential election, and environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said that these figures are the “lowest of the low” before crediting government enforcement efforts, which include cutting off loans to deforesters.
It must be said that the deforestation rates only refer to areas of land cleared by fires for farming and pastures, and that the satellite does not monitor anything else, like illegal logging, for example.
According to data furnished by the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), between August 2009 and August 2010, 2296 square kilometers burned in Brazil, far less than the 4375 square kilometers of the 12 months before.
This is very encouraging data but there are a few things that have not been considered, like the fact that the low-resolution system (Real-time Deforestation Detection System) only detects fires that cover more than 25 hectares.
INPE specialists told the Brazilian press that there is a possibility that farmers are starting smaller fires that are not detected by the satellite, and that the agency reported a large increase in fires in August.
Also, soybean and beef processors have made serious efforts not to buy products coming from newly deforested areas, and this has slowed down the rate of deforestation.
Daniel Nepstad, a senior scientist who works on tropical forests at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts as wellas Asner, said that the economic environment also plays an important part, because if beef and soy prices were to rise, it is not sure what would happen to Brazilian forests.
Still, Asner, who uses satellites to monitor tropical forests globally, says Brazil is the only tropical country whose deforestation rates decrease considerably, ScienceInsider reports.