Brazil outperforming neighbours' Amazon protection rate

05/09/2012

Brazil is doing a better job that its neighbours of protecting the Amazon rainforest, it has been noted.

Environmental efforts have largely focused on Brazil in recent years but moves by the country to encourage sustainable forestry and reduce the number of trees cleared for agricultural purposes have seen Brazil reduce deforestation by 76 per cent in eight years – from 10,424 square miles in 2004 to the 2,471 square miles reportedly destroyed last year.

Meanwhile, the 40 per cent of the Amazon that is beyond Brazil's borders remains at risk, with many of the countries poorer and less stable than Brazil and unable to enforce sustainable forestry plans.

Furthermore, it has been claimed that governments in countries like Bolivia continue to have a short-term view on economic growth and almost actively encourage the deforestation of the Amazon.

Timothy Killeen, a Bolivia-based ecologist and geographer who has been studying deforestation in the Amazon for 25 years, told the Washington Post: "There's more deforestation going on in the Andean Amazon than in the Brazilian Amazon. Before, Brazilian deforestation was four times as great as in the Andean Amazon. Now the Andes has more. We're winning the battle in Brazil but losing the battle in the Amazon."