A day after reporting that the rate of deforestation in the world’s largest rain forest jumped nearly 30 percent last year (6500 square miles), Brazil suspended all new permits for clearing land in the Amazon River basin.
An official from the Environment Ministry indicated this action might slow the deforestation rate “depending on how long the suspension lasts and whether the government really brings people breaking the law to book.”
Over the last few years, the Brazilian government has made a number of bold pronouncements which would halt deforestation, but most have yielded disappointing results. Jose Sarney Filho, the new head of the Environment Ministry, promises to get his arms around the situation. “There’s no point in the environment minister flying about in a helicopter to crack down on deforestation if the land reform minister is settling landless people right in the middle of the jungle,” he
said. And last year Brazil relaxed rules on the use of fire to clear land
and reduced the amount of land farmers must keep as nature preserves.
The 1998 deforestation figures do not include damage from massive fires on Brazil’s border with Venezuela, destroying as much as 4,250 square miles of forest and savanna.
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