Benedito Mendonça
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - On Friday (February 3) representatives of the Ministry of Environment, the Brazilian Environmental Protection Institute (Ibama) and international NGOs involved in environmental activities, met to discuss ways and means to control deforestation in the Pantanal.

The ONGs says they have data showing that over 44% of the Paraguai basin region has been destroyed. Monica Barcelos Neri, the director of Pantanal da Conservação Internacional, says the speed at which the deforestation of the Pantanal is occurring is alarming. "If the destruction continues at this rate the native vegetation in the Pantanal will be totally destroyed in 45 years," she says.

According to Neri, the main causes of Pantanal deforestation are expansion of cattle and crops, along with charcoal industries that "clean" large areas for their business. She also says there is a severe lack of incentives for ecotourism.

Translation: Allen Bennett