Brasília, 4/14/2004 (Agência Brasil) - A satellite-based, real time Environment Monitoring Center (Centro de Monitoramento Ambiental) is the Brazilian Environmental Protection Institute's (Instituto Brasileiro de Recursos Naturais Renováveis)( (Ibama) newest tool in the fight against the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

In an Agência Brasil interview, Guilherme Abdala, who will direct the center, says the new system will beef up the efficiency of Ibama inspection, allowing field personnel to act based on reliable, up-to-date information. Abdala called the system a "powerful tool." with its remote sensing radar, saying that it will "turn Ibama into a big eye observing everything that happens in the rainforest."

Abdala pointed out that besides permitting fast reaction by inspectors, it will be possible to tape images and build up a data bank with information on when deforestation took place, how it took place and who did it. He added that the system will make it possible to evaluate various types of risk to the environment besides deforestation, such as use of slash and burn farming techniques and illegal uses of land by squattors.

The latest satellite data, via the Space Research Institute (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais) (Inpe), is that in 2002/2003 a total of 23,750 square kilometers were destroyed by deforestation; an area 2% larger than was destroyed during the 2001/2002 period.

Translator: Allen Bennett