Brazil loses forests equal to ‘1 mn football pitches’-Nearly 8,000 sq km was cleared in one year: Greenpeace
- Deforestation in Brazil has reached such epic proportions that an area equivalent to one million football pitches was lost in just one year, Greenpeace said.
- Between August 2017 and July 2018, deforestation increased by almost 14%, with an area of 7, 900 sq km of forest cleared, according to the governmental institution of special investigations.
‘Could get worse’
- The Amazon rainforest represents more than half of Earth’s remaining rainforest and covers an area of 5.5 million sq km, about 60% of which is in Brazil.
- But it is under threat from illegal logging as well as farming, in particular from soybean plantations and pasture land for cattle.
- Between 2004 and 2012, deforestation in Brazil was slowed through controls imposed at a government level as well as by the private sector.
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