Amazon Deforestation Jumps Sixfold as Soy Output Expands
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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon jumped almost sixfold in the March-April period, led by the destruction of trees in Mato Grosso, the country’s biggest soybean-producing state.
Deforestation in the world’s largest rain forest increased in March and April to 593 square kilometers (147,000 acres), about the size of Toronto, from 103.5 square kilometers in the same period last year, the National Institute for Space Research said in statement posted on its website today. The institute uses data from its Real Time Deforestation Detection System, known as Deter, according to the statement. In January and February, 19.2 square kilometers of forest were destroyed.