Damage to the Amazon rain forest may be twice as large than previously thought due to undetected "selective" logging, US and Brazilian forest experts reported last night.
Conventional methods of analysing satellite images were capable of spotting only clear-cut swathes of land, where all the trees are removed for farming or grazing. Selective logging means individual trees are picked out of the forest.
Researchers at the Carnegie Institution of Washington used a new method to
study satellite images and detected selective logging in the five major timber production states of the Brazilian Amazon.
The report, published in today's issue of the journal Science, showed that the size of the damaged forest, taking into account selective logging, was between 60 per cent and 128 per cent higher than the officially deforested area between 1999 and 2002.
Brazil's fast-growing agricultural frontier and new road projects in recent years have led to the devastation of areas larger than the US state of New Jersey. More recent official figures suggest a slowing of the destruction in 2005.
In August the government estimated that 3,515 square miles were destroyed between August 2004 and July 2005, down from 7,229 square miles the year before.
The government acknowledged the merit of the study but said it overestimated the extent of selective logging.
"The lumber industry doesn't have the capacity to process such volumes," the Environment Ministry's forestry director said.