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Rain Forest Destruction
U.S. Government Sued for Allowing Imports of Peruvian Mahogany
Jul 4th
U.S. Government Sued for Allowing Imports of Peruvian Mahogany.
Doubly illegal, mahogany from the Peruvian Amazon is being imported into the United States for deluxe furniture under the noses of three federal agencies, according to a lawsuit filed today by two Peruvian indigenous groups and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. conservation organization. The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City.
Nearly all of Peru’s mahogany exports are logged illegally, the groups say. Importing it into the United States is illegal because it violates the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a major international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the lawsuit charges.
More than 80 percent of illegally logged Peruvian mahogany ends up in the United States.
KFC exposed
Jul 1st
Sao Paulo.– Greenpeace volunteers unfurled a 300 square metre banner in a massive area of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest this morning with the words ‘KFC – Amazon Criminal’ – in advance of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) Annual General Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky tomorrow.
Activists in 2 inflatable boats also protested against US commodities giant Cargill, at its illegal soya export facility in the heart of the Amazon, which supplies KFC with animal feed in Europe. They held up a banner saying ‘Cargill Out’, as rainforest soya was being prepared for export. Both protests highlight the fact that KFC is fuelling the destruction of the Amazon by selling cheap chicken fed on soya grown on deforested land.
Recent Greenpeace investigations have traced the chain of rainforest destruction directly from the heart of the Amazon, via Cargill’s facility, to KFC’s European restaurants, which sell bucket-loads of cheap soya-fed chicken to millions of people every day.
"Deforestation, slavery, use of toxic chemicals, land theft, illegal farming and the extinction of rare species are a recipe for disaster in the Amazon rainforest, but they are ingredients in KFC’s quest for cheap animal feed," said Greenpeace International Forest Campaign Coordinator Gavin Edwards. "Fast food companies like KFC must take Amazon deforestation off their menu before it is too late for the world’s greatest rainforest."
Rainforest loss in the Amazon tops 200,000 square miles
Jun 21st
Rainforest loss in the Amazon tops 200,000 square miles, new figures from Brazilian government.
Rainforest loss in the Amazon tops 200,000 square miles, new figures from Brazilian government mongabay.com May 20, 2005 New figures from the Brazilian government show that 10,088 square miles of rain forest were destroyed in the 12 months ending in August 2004. Deforestation in the Amazon in 2004 was the second worst ever as rain forest was cleared for cattle ranches and soy farms. Deforestation Figures for Brazil YearDeforestation [sq mi]Deforestation
Year
Deforestation
[sq mi]
Deforestation
[sq km]
1978-1988*
8,158
21,130
1989
6,944
17,985
1990
5,332
13,810
1991
4,297
11,130
1992
5,322
13,786
1993
5,950
15,410
1994
5,751
14,896
1995
11,219
29,059
1996
7,013
18,160
1997
5,034
13,040
1998
6,501
16,840
1999
6,663
17,259
2000
7,658
19,836
2001
7,027
18,130
2002
9,845
25,500
2003
9,500
24,605
2004
10,088
26,129
TOTAL
203,882
528,005 All figures derived from official National Institute of Space Research (INPA) figures *For the 1978-1988 period the figures represent the average annual rates of deforestation.
Scientists are concerned that widespread deforestation in the Amazon could have global consequences through species extinction and climate change. Nearly half the total deforestation last year took place in Mato Grosso state, where rain forests are being converted into large soy plantations. Blairo Maggi, the governor of the state, is world’s single largest soy producer. Soy has become Brazil’s biggest farm export — equal to about $10 billion in 2004 — thanks to a booming market fueled by high demand from China and, as the result of a new variety of soybean developed by Brazilian scientists to flourish in rainforest climate, the country is on the verge of supplanting the United States as the world’s leading exporter of soybeans. Each year Brazil is opening up an area of cropland the size of Maryland.
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