Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 70 percent during the last decade, from a ten-year average of 7,500 square miles per year in 2005 to 2,239 square miles in 2013, according to an article published in The Economist in June.
A key point in the article: the main culprits in Amazonian deforestation were not timber companies, but farmers and cattle ranchers.
Brazil's government gradually learned what worked through three phases of anti-deforestation strategies, beginning with an unrealistic policy of setting aside 80 percent of farmland as forest reserve in the mid-1990s.
What started working were enforceable restrictions on what Amazon land could be forested and banning cheap credit for farmers in counties where deforestation was especially bad.
Now, the article says, by any measure, "Brazil's Amazon policy has been a triumph."
Thanks to Robinson Lumber & Flooring's (New Orleans, La.) Joe Buckhaults, who emailed the story to HF. If you find news worth covering in the industry, email it to the HF editors.
