High Food Prices Cause Leap in Amazon Deforestation

Experts estimate that about 12,500 square miles of the Amazon will be cleared in 2008 alone.

The Brazilian government scrambled to divert criticism of its failure to protect the Amazon rain forest after the country’s space agency revealed that a massive increase in deforestation occurred during April.

Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, which uses satellites to survey the country, announced that 437 square miles of rain forest had been cut down or burned, compared to only 56 square miles lost during the previous month of March.

Greenpeace said that high world prices for soy and beef, two of the country’s largest exports, were the reason Amazon farmers accelerated the clearing of forest.

The environmental group accused the government of caving in to agricultural concerns by not enforcing conservation measures.

Less than two years ago, the government in Brasilia announced that the rate of deforestation was declining, and highlighted the arrests of corrupt environmental protection agency agents accused of falsifying logging certificates to aid illegal logging operations.