Is deforestation coming to an end????

The Brazilian government has announced suggesting that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has fallen by 50 percent this year.
The government says this is the result of new protection policie.

But environmental groups warn it is too soon to be sure there has been a long-term reversal in the destruction of the world's largest rainforest.

Environment Minister said 9,000 square km of forest was felled in the last year.

This compares with more than 18,000 square km in 2003 to 2004.

The Environment Minister said she believed this fall was the result of not only greater government control but also because of more development projects.

Deforestation in Indonesia:

In an article in Newsday, Edward A. Gargan, says that in Bangsri, Indonesia has the last great teakwood forests. The wood ends up in places like Abdul Jambari's garden furniture workshop. For about $100, Jambari's chair will sit on a patio or deck somewhere in the United States or Europe. But that chair and the 4,000 others that are part of Jambari's latest export shipment, have left behind a swath of utter devastation, one of thousands that afflict this archipelago and spell the end of the majestic forests that once blonged to Indonesia.

Their disappearance also means the extinction of innumerable animal and plant species indigenous to this country. One-tenth of the tropical forests are located in Indonesia. In an unpublished report, the World Bank found that all the lowland forests in one of Indonesia's largest islands, Sumatra, will be extinct this decade, and that unless the government acts immediately to stop rampant illegal logging, the only extensive forests that will remain in Sumatra and Kalimantan in the second decade of the new millennium will be the low-stature forests of the mountains.

Deforestation in Costa Rica:

In Costa Rica, people have denuded the forests to provide pastureland for cattle ranching. Pristine forests fell to make way for a world-wide demand for beef. Since the end of World War II, approximately 80% of the forests of Costa Rica have disappeared. Many people considered bananas or coffee, or even sugar cane, as the prime exports of Costa Rica. Sadly, the fact became apparent that top soil, the very life source to Costa Rica's agriculture, was becoming the prime export. Down from the denuded hills into the streams and out to the oceans, top soil was disappearing from the land mass, year after year. The deforestation of tropical rain forests is a threat to life worldwide. Deforestation has profound effects on global climate and causes the extinction of thousands of species annually. Stopping deforestation in the tropics has become an international movement and has promoted the search for ways to reverse its effects.