Increased use of satellite data appears to deter illegal land-clearing across the Amazon basin.
New technology that quickly detects large-scale illicit deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon region has resulted in a dramatic drop in the practice over the past year, according to the country’s environment agency.
ys satellite images reveal that only 580 square miles were lost to the most aggressive forms of illegal land-clearing between August 2009 and May 2010.
That compares to 1,160 square miles over the same period a year earlier.
The agency says that the use of radar sensors allows it to detect illegal logging and land-clearing even when skies are cloudy, or at night.
Brazil’s director of environmental protection, Luciano Evaristo, told the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper that understaffing and failure of the legal system to collect fires for illegal land clearing are still major obstacles to protecting the Amazon.
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