Deforestation Rate in Brazilian Amazon Rises After Four-Year Decline, Institute Says

Brazil’s Amazon region lost an estimated 5,843 square kilometers (2,256 square miles) of forest in the year ending July 31, 27.8 percent more than was lost in the previous year, following a four-year decline in the deforestation rate, according to preliminary figures issued by the National Space Research Institute (INPE) Nov. 14.

The forest loss was the second smallest since the government began measuring the Amazon deforestation rate in 1988. The smallest loss occurred in the one-year period ending July 31, 2012, when 4,571 square kilometers (1,765 square miles) of Amazon rain forest was cut.

The Amazon states of Pará ...