Brazil Announces Massive Plan to Survey Amazon Rainforest, Cut Deforestation by 80%
Posted By Lidija Grozdanic On February 13, 2013 @ 5:31 pm In Botanical,Conservation,environmental destruction,News | No Comments
Amazon rainforest [4] photo from Shutterstock
Brazil recently announced plans to count and catalogue the trees in the Amazon rainforest [5] as part of a massive conservation measure. The survey will provide more insight into the condition of the Amazon forest cover, 60 percent of which lies within Brazil [6]’s borders. Teams sent across the country will sample about 20,000 points at 20 km intervals, recording the number, height, diameter and species of trees.
[7]
The new survey will provide the most comprehensive data on the condition of the Amazon rainforest since the 70s. The last inventory was undertaken by Projeto RadamBrasil [8], an extensive aerial survey of the Amazon region [9] that lasted more than a decade. “We are going to come to know the rainforest from within,” said Forestry Minister Antonio Carlos Hummel.
Brazil, once one of the world’s largest deforesters, has pledged to cut deforestation rates by 80 percent below 2004 levels by 2020. According to state’s official reports, the pace of deforestation [10] in its Amazon region this year fell to its lowest level since authorities began monitoring the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The new survey, planned to help continue that trend, is expected to take four years, and results will be published yearly.
Via France24 [11]
Photos from Wikimedia Commons [12]
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/brazil-announces-massive-plan-to-survey-amazon-rainforest-cut-deforestation-by-80/
[4] Amazon rainforest: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-98104640/stock-photo-green-forest-with-ray-of-light.html?src=411CF13E-7618-11E2-9070-9CBF37D0D1A0-1-22
[5] Amazon rainforest: http://inhabitat.com/google-and-landsat-create-time-lapse-videos-showing-40-years-of-environmental-destruction-in-the-amazon/
[6] Brazil: http://inhabitat.com/yi-yvonne-weng-wins-2012-fosterpartners-award-for-web-like-tree-top-science-lab/canopy-trail7-2/
[7] Image: http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/02/800px-MadeiraDesmatamentoWilsonDiasAgenciaBrasil.jpg
[8] Projeto RadamBrasil: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projeto_Radambrasil
[9] Amazon region: http://inhabitat.com/google-launches-incredible-street-view-map-of-the-amazon/google-launches-street-view-of-amazon/
[10] deforestation: http://inhabitat.com/worlds-third-largest-paper-company-promises-to-halt-deforestation-in-indonesia/
[11] France24: http://www.france24.com/en/20130125-brazil-inventory-amazon-rainforest-trees
[12] Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_the_Amazon_Rainforest.jpg
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