Brazil Admits It Has a Deforestation Problem and Vows to Fix It
- Top security official says government has a plan against fires
- Data shows rainforest deforestation rising most in a decade
Piles of logs sit near the Amazon rain forest in Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil.
Photographer: Leonardo Carrato/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Brazil is drawing up plans to curtail a surge in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest that’s provoked an international outcry, the country’s top security official said.
“We are already preparing a stronger policy to contain fires,” General Augusto Heleno Pereira, the country’s Institutional Security Minister, said in an interview in Brasilia, in a rare acknowledgment of the problem. “Everybody is convinced we must tighten enforcement,” he added, referring to farmers who set fires on agricultural lands to improve productivity.