Clearing of rain forest on the rise
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Brazil will combat rising deforestation in the Amazon by sending additional federal police officers and environmental agents to areas where illegal clearing of the rain forest rose dramatically last year, officials said.
Authorities will monitor the areas in an attempt to prevent anyone from planting crops or raising cattle there, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.
The new measures were announced after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called an emergency Cabinet meeting because new data showed an apparent reversal of a three-year slowdown in the Amazon deforestation rate.
The clearing of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest jumped in the final months of 2007, spurred by high prices for corn, soy and cattle.
Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes said Latin America’s largest nation had plenty of cleared forest land for farming and cattle.
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