It is official: according to government’s data, deforestation in the Amazon is increasing, compared to one year ago. Institute for Space Research (INPE) released new data based on satellite analysis, that deforestation has been 63 percent higher in 2014, compared to the previous year. According to the environmental organization Imazon, forest destruction has been much higher if selective logging and fire are taken into account: 161 percent more that the previous year.
In February, the Brazilian government has taken a major steps in fighting illegal deforestation. The environmental enforcement agency IBAMA — arrested Ezequiel Antônio Castanha, the head of the illegal logging gang that plundered 15,000 hectares along the BR-163 highway in the state of Pará. In ten years the government has ben very proactive in curbing illegal logging, but deforestation has not stopped.
In fact, deforestation is more and more a legal practice. The new forest code, approved after a longstanding campaign by the agribusiness lobby, now allow farmer to clear and convert into plantation a higher rate of forest. The export boom made possible by low course of Brazilian currency, provides a further incentive to clear forests to expand plantations, also because even illegal clearing for agriculture is not severely sanctioned anymore. The run to produce crops for the export is now shrinking the Amazon forest.