Economist.com | The disappearing Amazon rainforest.

The disappearing Amazon rainforest May 19th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda

IF IT were simply a matter of passing strong laws to protect it, the Amazon rainforest—the world’s largest tropical forest, around the size of western Europe—would be safe. Brazil, whose territory includes about two-thirds of the forest, has impressively tough laws that, on paper, set most of it aside as a nature reserve and impose stiff penalties for illegal logging. But the latest annual figures for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, published by the government on Wednesday May 18th, have confirmed a disturbing recent trend: the destruction is accelerating despite all efforts to curb it.…