Cuiabá, 7/20/2004 (Agência Brasil) - A warning went out from the 56th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC): each year 25,000 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed. So far, one-fifth of the world's biggest tropical forest has already been destroyed.

The SBPC annual meeting is taking place this week in the state of Mato Grosso.

Ennio Candotti, the president of the SBPC, declared that he is concerned about the ability of science to deal with environmental preservation and end deforestation. The Amazon forest is being chopped down to make room for soybeans and cattle, he said. "Experts from The Brazilian Farm Research Corporation (Embrapa) say that soybean crops and cattle raising should be confined to areas already cleared. Their studies show that it is possible to double grain and animal production without cutting down any more trees. Cattle, for example, can be raised in smaller areas using modern technology," declared the SBPC president.

Candotti says that the Amazon rainforest is an enormous scientific laboratory that urgently needs a political project. "There are other countries that invest more in the Amazon than Brazil. And we must combat deforestation by finding out who is the mastermind behind the destruction. We have a thousand scientist in the region. We need ten thousand," he said.

Repórter: Keite Camacho
Translator: Allen Bennett