Brazil to Privatize Portions of Amazon Rainforest

In an effort to curtail illegal logging, the government of Brazil will auction logging concessions for "large swaths" of the Amazon rainforest, the world's largest, to private timber companies and cooperatives, according to Reuters. Within the next five to six years, Brazil will grant logging concessions for nearly 30 million acres of rainforest; existing concessions total about 370,000 acres. Antonio Carlos Hummel, head of Brazil's National Forestry Service, said the future of the Amazon is dependent on strengthening forest management. According to Reuters, the private logging companies will only harvest as many trees as the rainforest can regenerate, unlike illegal loggers that have already destroyed nearly 20 percent of the rainforest. Hummel said earlier concessions helped establish state control in certain lawless regions of the rainforest. To lessen abuse of the auctions, upcoming concessions will be overseen by non-government organizations.