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Amazon clearing 'at a 22-year low'

Brazil's government has claimed deforestation in the Amazon rain forest has dropped to its slowest pace in 22 years.

By The Newsroom
Published 1st Dec 2010, 14:57 BST
Updated 1st Dec 2010, 20:20 BST

Environment minister Izabella Teixeira said satellite imagery from the National Institute for Space Research showed 2,490 square miles of the Amazon was deforested between August 2009 and July 2010, a 14 per cent drop from a year earlier.

The institute said the area deforested is the smallest since 1988.

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Ms Teixeira said it was "the lowest deforestation level in the history of the Amazon and we are committed to (lowering it]."

The government credits better enforcement of environmental laws for the slowdown.