Deforestation drops 18pc in Brazil’s Amazon

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has dropped by 18 per cent in the past year according to an announcement by Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira on Wednesday.

Teixeira said the fall, for the year to July 2014, meant deforestation was at its second lowest level in 25 years and the announcement comes just days before the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru on Monday.

Ms Teixeira said 4,848 square kilometres (1,872 square miles) of rainforest was destroyed between August 2013 and July 2014; down from 5,891 kilometres (2,275 square miles) during the same period the previous year.

However, a spokesman for the said alternative satellite monitoring systems, not used by the government, show an increase in the rate of deforestation for a second year running.

Marco Lentini, who coordinates the Amazon programme for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Brazil branch, said: “We were surprised. The major message is OK, is good: Brazil has been advancing. It doesn’t mean that deforestation issue is over. We are still very far from this goal of having minimum deforestation.”

Brazilian NGO Imazon uses satellite images to measure deforestation and warned last week of a 467 per cent rise in October from the same month a year earlier.

Ms Teixeira said the official government calculation was the most accurate: "Anything else is speculation. We have been working hard to end deforestation."

The Amazon hosts around one-third of the planet’s biodiversity and is considered one of the world’s most important natural defences against climate change due to its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide.

The Amazon extends over 6.1 million square kilometers (3.8 million square miles), with more than 60 per cent within Brazil’s borders and rain forest clearing is responsible for around 75 per cent of Brazil’s emissions.