Deforestation in Brazil finally slowing down

Deforestation in Brazil looks to be slowing down, in fact Brazil has announced a reduction in Amazon deforestation to its lowest level since the 1980s, as the result of excellent government strategy that included measures such as improvement of real time satellite monitoring, and proper enforcement that allowed forest rangers to go directly to areas where logging or burning was taking place.

Official government figures say that around 7,008 square kilometers of trees were cut down in the year to July, which is massive 45.7 per cent decrease on the previous year's figure and just a quarter of the 2004 deforestation level. President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva proudly said how "this latest data shows "an extraordinary and significant reduction for Brazil".

Deforestation in Brazil looks to be finally slowing down.

This decrease in deforestation is of vital importance in country's efforts to reduce CO2 emissions because deforestation is the largest cause of deforestation in Brazil. If this trend is about to continue than Brazil's promise that it will make the voluntary reductions of between 38 and 42 percent in its carbon dioxide emissions really does not seem too optimistic like many thought it does.

The government in Brazil is certainly putting lately lot more effort to protect Amazon rainforest than it used to have. Today 43 percent of the Amazon is under state protection, with many land being turned into reserves or national parks and with sustainable logging initiatives and programs that pay people to protect rather than cut down trees in Amazon rainforest deforestation rates are slowing down.

Hopefully we'll see this positive trend in years to come too.