Over 70 people have been arrested in Brazil in a crackdown on illegal loggers in the Amazon. The arrests followed a two year investigation in six Brazilian states and police estimate that the illegal logging operation had caused damage costing up to $500 million.
Of those arrested several were officials employed to protect the rainforest. These environmental officials in Mato Grosso state are accused of providing false documents, which helped the loggers avoid controls on illegal deforestation from protected areas.
Timber companies in Brazil are required by law to have a certificate to show their logs come from an approved source, this is supposed to protect the rainforest. However, the majority of the timber seized in the raid came from national parks and protected indigenous territories.
In the southern Amazon, Mato Grosso is the one of the regions that is worst affected by forest clearance, largely for expanding soya farms. Landowners, forest managers and loggers were also arrested.
The operation is part of Brazilian president Lula’s pledge that his government is significantly reducing the rate of Amazon deforestation as part of its strategy to combat climate change.
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May 25th, 2010 at 3:26 PM
What does illegal logging have to do with deforestation? Why should “illegal logging” be blamed for deforestation which is done because of land use change for soy beans?
I do not understand the linkage between illegal logging and deforestation, sorry.
May 26th, 2010 at 9:22 AM
the link between illegal logging and deforestation is I would think fairly straight forward. When trees are cut down for financial gain that creates deforestation.
what the article perhaps does not make clear is that in Mato Grosso, an increase in soybeans occurred in regions previously used for pasture, which may have displaced pastures further north into the forested areas, causing indirect deforestation there.
So while the proximate cause of deforestation in the Amazon was predominantly the expansion of pasture, and not of soybeans, soybean cultivation is still be one of the major underlying causes of deforestation in the Amazon.