December 24, 2007

Amazon deforestation set to soar.  Reacting to increasing Amazonian deforestation in recent months, Brazil has banned the sale of farm products from illegally deforested areas in the Amazon. It should be noted deforestation rates [search] do not include rainforest diminishment caused by industrial first time logging and other activities that may leave some trees, but effectively destroy ancient rainforest ecosystems and release much of their carbon.

Policies announced included imposing fines for buying or trading illegally produced beef and soy, sending in seven hundred more troops, and establishing a land registry. The Brazilian government has recently been trumpeting 50% reductions in deforestation over the past two years. However, these decreases appear to have been more a result of declines in agricultural markets than any fundamental reduction in deforestation, and as markets recover deforestation and climate change soars.
 

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