Daniel Howden | Washington | January 18

The Independent - The destruction of the Amazon rainforest has surged in the past four months, raising the prospect of 2008 being a disastrous year for the world's most important eco-system, a senior Brazilian government scientist has warned.

Dr Carlos Nobre, a scientist with a government agency that monitors the Amazon said thousands of square miles of rainforest had been destroyed since October, after four years in which deforestation rates had begun to slow.

"I think the past four months is a big concern for the government and now they are sending people to do more law enforcement," Dr Nobre, told a seminar in Washington yesterday. "But I can tell you that it [deforestation] is going to be much higher than 2007."

The claims from the head of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research appear to undermine the government's record on environmental protection and come in the same week as a major report was released detailing the growth of cattle ranching in the Amazon.

Dr Nobre said 2,300 sq miles of forest had been lost in the past four months. That compares with an estimated 3,700 sq miles in the 12 months that ended on 31 July, which Brazilian officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since the 1970s.

[...]

Friends of the Earth released a report this week which revealed that 74 million cattle are reared in the Amazon basin where they outnumber people by a ratio of more than three to one.

Deforestation has emerged as the second leading source of the carbon emissions driving climate change. Brazil is now among the four main carbon polluters in the world and deforestation accounts for more than three quarters of its emissions.

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See also Agonist Thread: World Bank pledges to save trees... then helps cut down Amazon forest

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WWF, December 2007

Amazon Deforestation Rates Decreasing, Rainforests Still Threatened

New data from the government of Brazil shows that deforestation rates for the Brazilian Amazon from August 2006 to July 2007 have fallen for the third consecutive year - and are the lowest registered for the region since 1991.

While these rates have reached historic lows, deforestation in the Amazon still proceeded at an alarming speed. During the government's survey period more than 2.7 million acres disappeared - equaling about four football fields of rainforest per minute. There are also indications that deforestation rates may be on the increase since the end of the reporting period.

"The Amazon has a unique and irreplaceable value, not only locally, but globally. Our recent report [PDF] indicates that 60 percent of the Amazon's forests could be gone by 2030, releasing billion of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, with major contributions to global warming", warns Dr. Meg Symington, WWF's priority leader for the Amazon. "If we are serious about saving the Amazon, the international community should support the efforts of the Amazon countries to stop deforestation; the Bali conference provides the opportunity to act now."

Deforestation and its effect on climate change is one of the many topics being discussed at the ongoing UN Climate Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Up to 75 percent of Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and forest fires - mainly in the Amazon. Because of this, Brazil is the fourth largest climate polluter in the world.

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From the WWF report's Executive summary.

Many changes underway in the Amazon today could lead to extensive conversion and degradation of Amazon forests over the next 15-25 years, well ahead of the late-century dieback predicted by some models. Current trends in agriculture and livestock expansion, fire, drought, and logging could clear or severely damage 55 percent of the Amazon rainforest by the year 2030.