Brazil Amazon Destruction Rises 28 Percent
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon region has risen 28 percent over the past year, the country's environment minister said.
Making the announcement in the capital Brasilia on Thursday, Izabella Teixeira said she was calling an emergency meeting to try to remedy the situation.
"We confirm a 28 percent increase in the rate of deforestation, reaching 5,843sq km," she said quoting provisional statistics for August 2012 through July this year.
Extensive farming and soya-bean production in the northern state of Para and the central-western state of Mato Grosso were key factors behind the rise, Teixeira said, citing increases for the two states of 37 and 52 percent respectively.
Teixeira said she would meet Amazon regional environment secretaries of state next week to demand explanations and measures to deal with the situation on her return from a UN climate change summit in Warsaw.
She also criticised the apparent ineffectiveness of monitoring by federal state authorities.
"The Brazilian government does not tolerate and does not accept any rise in illegal deforestation," Teixeira said, insisting the country was firmly committed to drastically reducing deforestation.
Although large in percentage terms, the rise in absolute terms is the second smallest in recent years as 2012 saw 4,571sq km of deforestation, following an even more disturbing 6,418sq km in 2011.
The worst year on record was 2004, when 27,000sq km of forest was lost.
