I would like to share a report on Amazon forest that I recently read in the National daily Gulf News of UAE.

As per the report -The National Institute for Space research recently warned that forest destruction in the Amazon basin has sharply increased. As per the satellite images, 68%  of rain forest has fallen down in the first two weeks of July compared to the same period a year ago. Through its monitoring tools Brazil captures the  change in forest cover by comparing snapshots every 15-20 days.

That data is uploaded to the internet and sent to federal and regional environmental authorities, who cross check with rural property maps. In this way, officials can see who is cutting down forests, determine if the felling is illegal and dispatch inspectors or environmental police to trouble spots.

Farmers, miners, road- builders and  ranchers,  who were digging  deep into the forest to amass its wealth of gold, iron ore and timber, their progress is constantly monitored by scientists through images captured from orbiting satellites. In fact rainforest watchdogs have highlighted the destruction on patches no larger than half a football pitch.

Brazil is Internationally committed to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. Better policing has led to the expansion of nature preserves and has bound farmers not to clear cut forest to sow their fields. Yet under the present regime, these gains are now in jeopardy, with an increasing proportion of deforestation driven by industrial activities and large-scale agriculture. In fact, more than three-quarters of forest clearing in the Amazon is for cattle-ranching.  As per the researcher Amazon forest is a store house of more carbon than the world’s reserves of fossil fuels. If rain forest degeneration goes uncontrolled whole planet would pay the price including Brazil.

Image Credit - NYT