Brazilian government faces criminal charges over Amazon deforestation

On the 30^th September the Guardian reported that the Brazilian government faces criminal charges over Amazon deforestation.

A report by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research demonstrated that after three years of decline in the rate of destruction, there was an increase of 228% in August compared with the same month a year ago.  Data suggests that 300 square miles were destroyed in August, twice as much as July.  This figure almost certainly underestimates the true extent of destruction as no information was available for 26% of the Amazon in August due to cloud cover.

A list released by Carlos Minc (Brazilian Environment Minister) named 100 of the largest illegal loggers in the Amazon, all of whom will face criminal charges.  Topping the list is the Brazilian government's own Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra).  One of Incra's duties is to redistribute land to the poor, but they were accused by Greenpeace of illegally handing over rainforest to logging companies.  Figures showed that Incra was responsible for destroying 544,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest in the past three years.

The increase in deforestation has been blamed on two factors.  Firstly, the increasing price of food does much to encourage deforestation to provide land for farming.  Carlos Minc also explained that with the national elections approaching, mayors in the Amazon are more likely to ignore illegal loggers in order to gain votes.

In addition to the criminal charges, the government will also be creating an environmental police force with 3,000 armed and specially trained officers to help combat illegal deforestation.

See the article on the Guardian's web site for the full story.

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