Last year, we heard the excellent news that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon had dropped for the third consecutive year. However, yesterday came the rather less welcome news that those rates had changed and have moved in an upward direction.
Figures for August to December 2007 show that the rate of destruction has now doubled to new record levels, and although this is only preliminary data, it indicates that figures for the year overall will probably be very high. It shouldn't come as a surprise, though - many experts, including our own Amazon team, have been warning that increased prices for products like soya and beef have been tempting farmers to clear more rainforest and that without a concerted effort from the Brazilian government, an increase in deforestation was inevitable.
As Greenpeace Brazil's Paulo Adario told the Guardian, even though Brazil's President Lula da Silva's government has had some success in tackling deforestation the Amazon, "what the government does not control is the economic reality. It is the economy that controls deforestation. Each time the prices of meat and soy rise so does deforestation.
It seems we still have a long way to go before deforestation in the Amazon is a thing of the past.
