O desmatamento está se acelerando na Amazônia brasileira?

Abstract

IRecent studies suggest that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon could increase sharply in the future as a result of over $40 billion in planned investments in highway paving and major new infrastructure projects in the region. These studies have been challenged by several Brazilian ministries, which assert that recent improvements in environmental laws, enforcement, and public attitudes have fundamentally reduced the threat posed to forests by such projects. We tested the notion that hazards to Amazonian forests have declined over the last decade by assessing available data on deforestation rates from 1978 to 2000. Although the alarmingly high rate of forest loss from 1978-1989 (1.98 million ha yr-1) declined somewhat from 1990-1994 (1.38 million ha yr-1), it rebounded to a high level from 1995-2000 (1.90 million ha yr-1). Moreover, correlation and regression analyses reveal that both absolute and per-capita rates of forest loss accelerated significantly over the last decade. These trends fail to support the assertion that deforestation pressure in Amazonian forests has been brought under control. We suggest that poor enforcement of existing environmental laws, rapidly expanding logging and mining industries, increasing population pressure, and other challenges are greatly hindering efforts to limit the environmental impacts of development activities in Brazilian Amazonia.