[Gasification] AMAZON DEFORESTATION SEEN SURGING

[Benjamin Domingo Bof]

Amazon deforestation seen surging
Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:44pm EST
Related News
Brazil sees sharp farm growth, despite environment
09 Jan 2008
Brazil cracks down on illegal Amazon farm products

Learn. Practice. Trade.
  By Stuart Grudgings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deforestation of the Amazon has surged in
recent months and is likely to rise in 2008 for the first time in
four years, a senior Brazilian government scientist said on Wednesday.

The rise raises questions over Brazil's assertion that its
environmental policies are effectively protecting the world's biggest
rain forest, whose destruction is a major source of carbon emissions
that drive global warming.

"I think the last four months is a big concern for the government and
now they are sending people to do more law enforcement," Carlos
Nobre, a scientist with Brazil's National Institute for Space
Research, told a seminar in Washington.

"But I can tell you that it (deforestation) is going to be much
higher than 2007."

Nobre, whose government agency monitors the Amazon and gathers data,
said that 2,300 square miles of forest had been lost in the past four
months.

That compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months
ended July 31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest
deforestation rate since the 1970s.

Brazil's government has said that policies such as more controls on
illegal logging and better certification of land ownership were
reducing the deforestation that has destroyed about a fifth of the
forest -- an area bigger than France -- since the 1970s.

But environmental groups have warned that rising global commodity
prices are likely to fuel more clearing of land for farms, as
occurred in 2004 when Brazil recorded the highest deforestation rate
of more than 10,400 square miles (27,000 square km ).

LAND USE CHANGES

Nobre said the cause of the recent surge was unclear, but that the
major drivers of deforestation such as illegal logging and land
clearing for cattle farming remained intact, despite the recent
annual declines in forest clearing.

"All those drivers of change are there. The three years of reduced
deforestation ... did not bring by themselves a cure for illegal
deforestation," he said.

Destruction of forests produces about 20 percent of man-made carbon
dioxide emissions, making conservation of the Amazon crucial to
limiting rises in global temperatures.

But the government has struggled to stem deforestation, partly due to
strong global demand that has made Brazil one of the world's biggest
food suppliers. Environmental groups also warn that a rash of planned
infrastructure projects in the coming years could bring more settlers
to untapped regions.

"Infrastructure is associated with aggressive and progressive land
use change," said Nobre, noting that 90 percent of Amazon
deforestation occurred within 30 miles (50 km) of roads.

He also warned that continued high world oil prices were likely to
result in a surge in demand for Amazon land to produce ethanol, the
alternative transport fuel for which global demand is already booming.

"If oil prices keep increasing there will be an explosion of biofuel
production in the Amazon, contrary to Brazilian government policy,"
Nobre said.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)





       
---------------------------------

Tarjeta de crédito Yahoo! de Banco Supervielle.Solicitá tu nueva Tarjeta de crédito. De tu PC directo a tu casa. 
 Visitá www.tuprimeratarjeta.com.ar