U.k.-sized chunk of rainforest destroyed

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area almost as big as the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2010, environmental watchdog agencies said Tuesday.

The study prepared by the Amazon Information Network was released in Bolivia. It showed that close to 240,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest were devastated in the 10-year period, the network said in a statement.

The main culprits are illegal logging, the construction of highways, mining, farming and ranching, the construction of hydroelectric dams and oil and gas drilling and exploration.

Sixty-three per cent of the rainforest’s 6.1 million square kilometres are in Brazil, and 80.4 per cent of the 2000-10 deforestation occurred in that country, the study said. Peru was responsible for 6.2 per cent of the deforestation, and Colombia came in third with five per cent.

The pace of Amazon deforestation in Brazil and the other countries, with the exception of Colombia and French Guiana, has slowed, the study said.

The network is composed of 11 environmental watchdog organizations in eight South American countries and French Guiana, all of which share the vast Amazon rainforest.

About 20 per cent of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has been destroyed. But beginning in 2008, the government stepped up enforcement, using satellite images to track the destruction and send environmental police into areas where illegal deforestation was happening. The Amazon rainforest is considered one of the world’s most important natural defences against global warming.