Brazil is preparing to release its latest Amazon-deforestation report this month, and the news will not be good, according to a top official with Ibama, the country’s environmental-enforcement agency. “Ibama has received unofficial estimates from the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe) that indicate the 2003 deforestation rate is exorbitantly and alarmingly high and runs the risk of surpassing the rate in 2001-2002,” says Flávio Montiel, head of environmental protection at Ibama. Inpe, which uses satellite images to monitor Amazon deforestation, reported last July that from Aug. 1, 2001 to July 31, 2002, 9,836 square miles (25,476 sq kms)—or 1.3%—of the forested Brazilian Amazon was cleared, legally and illegally. That compares to 7,014 square miles (18,166 sq kms) cleared in the... [Log in to read more]