Timber Seizures Soar as High-Tech Equipment is Introduced
7/31/97
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Headline: Timber Seizures Soar as High-Tech Equipment is
Introduced
Source: Reuters
Date: 7/31/97
Author: William Schomberg
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
TIMBER SEIZURES SOAR AS BRAZIL GOES HIGH-TECH.
BRASILIA - Seizures of illegally felled timber in the
Amazon rainforest in Brazil have soared following the
introduction of new, high-tech equipment, the government's
environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
In the first six week's of an annual crackdown on illegal
logging, the Brazilian Environment Institute (Ibama) aand
police units seized 46,00 cubic meters of timber, said
Rodolfo Lobo, head of Ibama's surveillance department.
That compared with 39,000 cubic meters seized throughout
last year's entire dry season which runs between June and
December, Lobo said.
"The loggers had better watch out. We can see the damage
and get to it now, no problem," he said.
Lobo attributed the increase to a new sensoring and
satellite positioning system, called the Global Positioning
System (GPS), which Ibama is using on a wide-scale for a
first time this year.
Studying images from equipment installed on a Brazilian Air
Force plane, Ibama officials can now detect not only areas
which have been extensively logged but also areas where
only selective logging, which is harder to detect, has been
carried out.
If no logging permits have been issued for those areas,
Ibama teams are sent in, equipped with satellite guidance
systems to help them find their way through the vast and
often uncharted forest.
"We no longer have to wander through the Amazon looking for
illegal loggers," Lobo said. "Brazil's section of the
rainforest is bigger than Western Europe so you can imagine
how difficult the job used to be."
The system is similar to technology which will be
introduced over the next five years with the construction
of a $1.3 billion Amazon Surveillance System (Sivam) which
will use radars and satellites to improve control over
the region.
As well as the timber seizures, Ibama also arrested 13
people who were cutting paths into a national park in
Roraima state, on the border with Venezuela, and issued
about $600,000 in fines, Ibama said in a statement.
The introduction of the GPS system comes amid mounting
criticism of Brazil's program to protect the Amazon.
An internal government report leaked to a local newspaper
earlier this year said as much as 80 percent of timber from
the region was cut down without the proper permits.
And in June, environmental groups attacked Brazil at an
international meeting on endangered species for opposing
moves that would introduce new, tougher controls for the
lucrative trade in mahogany, a precious hardwood grown in
the Amazon.