This is good news that government initiatives are been made to work. The damage done was bad enough, but the real
damage was the lack of sensible follow up agriculture in the area that invented
terra preta to save tropical soils.
I would like to see a major restoration of traditional terra preta farming
to put the population to work on their own small economic freeholds. It can be done and it can be done globally.
In the meantime, the worst seems to have subsided and since it was of no
benefit to the government let alone anyone except the timber guys, it is just
as well.
Amazon deforestation rate at
historic low: Brazil
by Staff
Writers
Deforestation of the Amazon forest has fallen to its lowest rate on record, dropping 14 percent compared to the previous survey period,
Satellite imaging
showed 6,451 square kilometers (2,491 square miles) of the jungle had been cut
back between August 2009 and July 2010, an area equivalent to half the size of
Lebanon or Jamaica.
That was less than for
the corresponding 12-month period a year earlier, but still more than than the
5,000-square-kilometer target the government was aiming for.
Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira hailed the
progress, saying it showed anti-deforestation measures started six years ago
were still working.
"This is the
smallest deforestation in the history of the Amazon. These numbers are
fantastic," she said.
Cutting and burning of
the Amazon forest is calculated to cause 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, making Brazil the
fourth-biggest greenhouse gas polluter.
The government has
pledged to cut Amazon deforestation by 80 percent over the next decade.
Teixeira said she
would be going to UN climate talks under way in Mexico
"proud" of Brazil 's
results so far and ready "to negotiate compromises and results with other
countries."
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