Fernanda Muylaert e Milena Fiori
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – Some good news from the Amazon: only 18,900 square kilometers of forest were cut down or burned down between August 2004 and July 2005. That is 30% less than the 27,200 square kilometers destroyed between August 2003 and July 2004. The numnbers are from the Space Research Institute (Inpe).

According to ministers Marina Silva, of Environment, and Sergio Rezende, of Science and Technology, there was a substantial reduction in deforestation along the Belem-Brasilia highway (known as the BR-163). Silva said that the government has put its Deforestation Combat Plan into operation in that region and cracked down on illegal destruction of the forest there.

Translation: Allen Bennett