Brazil's Gov. Defends Forest Record - NJ-Sized Area Destroyed In 2003

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BRASILIA, Brazil - "Brazil on Thursday defended its efforts to fight destruction of the Amazon rain forest despite delays in creating reserves to protect the world's largest jungle.

The nation's center-left government has promised to create 33 million acres of environmental reserves in 2004, after Amazon destruction last year reached its second-highest level. But so far, the government has met only a small fraction of its goal.
Speaking at an event to mark this week's international environment day, Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva said she wasn't worried. She saw big reserves on the horizon and said it took time to build areas that could protect the rain forest as well as people's livelihoods.

"It's all about uniting the environment, development and social justice," Silva, a former maid who comes from the Amazon, told Reuters after unveiling plans for new reserves. In 2003, 5.9 million acres of Amazon jungle, bigger than the U.S. state of New Jersey, were destroyed as ranchers and farmers advanced on the tropical jungle. The Amazon encompasses an area just under half the size of the continental United States.

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Despite Marina Silva's promise to create 33 million acres of protected areas across Brazil in 2004, the government has so far set aside just 1.58 million acres -- most of that with Thursday's announcement of two new Atlantic rain forest reserves."

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25394/story.htm