Brazil Losing Fight to Save Amazon Rainforests

From Yahoo News.

ALTA FLORESTA, Brazil (Reuters) - In the heart of what is known in Brazil's Amazon as the "arc of deforestation" it is clear that the fight to save the jungle is being lost.

Where Rainforest Meets Farmland

The above picture shows the arc that separates jungle from farmland, which is the front line in the battle over the Amazon. In 2004 the Brazilian government decided to make a stand in this half-moon shaped area stretching along the southern and eastern edges of the Amazon. A year later, environmentalists and government officials have little to show for the effort.

The government said on Wednesday that deforestation jumped to its second highest level on record in 2003-2004, to 10,088 square miles -- an area nearly the size of Belgium and slightly bigger than the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Just under 20 percent of the world's largest tropical forest, which is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species, has now been destroyed.

Deforestation in Brazil is being fought by environmental organizations such as Friends of the Earth, but Brazilian FOE directory Roberto Smeraldi worries about government commitment: "It looks like they no longer believe in the possibility of calling on society to react to this and they are trying to diminish the importance of the deforestation".

(Friends of the Earth is based in Great Britain.)