DEFORESTATION in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 31% in the first five months of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration versus the same period last year, officials said yesterday.
Satellite monitoring detected 1,986 sq km of forest cover destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggest rainforest from January to May, down from 2,867 sq km for the same period last year, according to the national space agency’s DETER surveillance programme.