On the eve of the release of shocking new data on Amazon deforestation rates, Greenpeace today called on the Government of Brazil to reduce deforestation to zero by the year 2010.

The new information, due to be released by the Ministry of Environment later today, shows that uncontrolled destruction of the Amazon forest continues at an alarming rate: from August 1999 to August 2000 deforestation increased by 15%. According to INPE, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, who monitor deforestation via satellite, the total annual deforested area equalled 19,836 square kilometers (7658.6796 square miles) - the equivalent of 4 million soccer fields -- compared to 17,259 square kilometers (6663.6999 square miles) from August 1998 to August 1999.

"The new figures clearly show that efforts by the Brazilian Government have failed to stop, or even to slow, deforestation of the Amazon", said Paulo Adário, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner. "This loss of forest cover in the Amazon is unacceptable and unsustainable. Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that Amazon soil is not suitable for agriculture and cattle ranching. The biological richness of the region lives only in the standing forest. To continue unchecked deforestation means to condemn the Amazon to inevitable environmental and social crises".

An important footnote to this new data is that the satellite TM-Landsat, used by INPE, does not include deforestation of areas smaller than 6.4 hectares. This means that the impacts of hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers are not included.

The data also does not include the impacts of selective removal of commercially valuable species by the thousands of illegal loggers operating in the region. According to researcher Daniel Nepstad, cited in an article in Nature in 2000, selective logging impacted on 15,000 square kilometers (5791.5 square miles) in 1997 alone.

Greenpeace said that instead of weakening the forest legislation though proposed changes to Brazil's Forest Code that would increase the loss of forest coverage (1), Brazil must urgently adopt a meaningful and monitorable national program to fight deforestation. For that, Greenpeace calls on the Government of Brazil to implementation national and international commitments made by Brazil during Eco-92 within the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) (2), and to embark on a series of domestic measures to curb deforestation:

• Appropriation of land held illegally, which according to the government totals approximately 100 million hectares or 20% of the Amazon region, for conversion to protected areas such as parks and reserves for sustainable use;
• Establishment of conservation units that have already been approved but have not yet been created;
• Redirection of landless people being relocated through the National Program of Agrarian Reform to already deforested areas;
• Strengthening of the institutions charged with environmental protection such as IBAMA and State Secretaries of Environment;
• Adoption of systems and controls to deter production of timber from deforestation and benefit timber production from areas under sustainable forest management and FSC certification.
• Financial and institutional strengthening of community based forest management;
• Expansion of governmental programs to fight forest fires;
• Demarcation of all Indigenous lands.

"Only 22% of the earth's original forest coverage remains. Western Europe has lost almost 98% of its primary forests; Asia 94%; Africa 92%; Oceania 78%; North America 66%, and South America 54%" said Greenpeace USA, Forest Campaigner Scott Paul. "Approximately 45% of the world's tropical forests, originally covering 1.4 billion hectares, have disappeared in the last few decades."

"In 1970, only 1% of the Brazilian Amazon had been deforested. By 2000 almost 15% had been destroyed. This means a forest area the size of France lost in only 30 years. Stopping forest destruction has become a global priority. It must become a Brazilian priority before it is too late to act," concluded Adario.

More information:
Paulo Adário, (5592) 627.9001 or (5592) 9985.5001
Rebeca Lerer, (5592) 9995.2070 or (5511) 9169.7953