Scope: Amazon deforestation in Brazil back to alarming level.

Friday May 20, 8:32 AM Scope: Amazon deforestation in Brazil back to alarming level (Kyodo) _ The statistics released by the Brazilian government concerning deforestation levels in the Amazon rainforest last year have alarmed environmentalists. The world’s largest tropical forest lost 26,130 square kilometers of original vegetation in the period, according to the Environment Ministry. The annual devastated area is the second largest since 1995, when 29,059 square km of the rainforest was destroyed. The destroyed area may be even larger because the National Institute of Space Research, which produced the statistics based on satellite images, will close the study only by the end of 2005. Environmentalists say the Brazilian authorities are not doing enough to conserve the rainforest. "Sustainable development has not yet been adopted by the federal government and by most state governments as a policy for the Amazon, although this is the base of documents, projects and official speeches," said the Brazilian branch of WWF, the international environmentalist organization.

Few sectors of the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva follow the guidelines for sustainable development, according to WWF.

The WWF said most of the federal bodies "promote actions that lead to negative impact, through the stimulus to the spread of real estate speculation in forest areas, under the argument that it is necessary to expand agriculture."

"The Environment Ministry tries to do their job by creating protected areas, a proved efficient measure, but not enough to stop the spread of deforestation," Denise Hamu, the general secretary of WWF-Brazil, said.

Environment Minister Marina Silva has attributed the increasing devastation of forest areas to the country’s economic development.

The Brazilian gross domestic production, largely concentrated on agriculture goods, expanded by 5.2 percent in 2004, and experts blame the expansion of plantation fields as a key factor for the increasing deforestation in the Amazon region.

"If we do not incorporate the criterion of sustainability for all the aspects of the Amazon economy it will be impossible to fight deforestation just through monitoring," Silva said.

No less than 17.3 percent of the original Amazon rainforest has been destroyed, according to WWF Brazil, which has acknowledged that the federal government has taken some action to curb the devastation.

Some states have managed to bring down deforestation levels, however.

The state of Roraima, in the remote northwestern area by the border with Venezuela, posted no deforestation between 2003 and 2004, according to the ministry.

The northern states of Tocantins and Amazonas reduced deforestation by 44 percent and 39 percent, respectively, in the period, it said.

"The government actions are producing results," the minister said.

Silva referred chiefly to the Amazon Protected Areas Program, whose main target is the promotion of preservation and sustainable development in the Amazon rainforest region.

The implementation of the unprecedented program is a joint operation of the Brazilian authorities together with the World Bank and WWF Brazil, among other institutions.

"The program has supported the creation of some 16.000 square km (of protected areas), but there is still a lot to do," WWF Brazil said.