15 Yrs, $370 Mil Of Illegal Logging Revealed As Brazilian Police Arrest 89

[hatrack]

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - "Brazilian police said they had broken up the biggest illegal logging operation in the Amazon on Thursday in a move environmentalists saw as a sign the government was serious about beating the corruption that hampers the fight to save the rain forest.

A total of 89 people were arrested in the crackdown, nearly half of them from the government agency charged with protecting the forests from a gang that had illegally cut down an estimated $370 million of Amazon timber since 1990. They included the head of the government agency, known as Ibama, in the state of Mato Grosso.

The sweep across six states suggested the government was finally reacting to environmentalists' criticism that it had failed to act to save the Amazon after data showed an area of jungle larger than the U.S. state of New Jersey was cut down last year.

That deforestation was the second-highest level on record for the world's largest tropical forest."

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=5&u=/nm/20050602/wl_nm/crime_brazil_amazon_dc_4

[elehhhhna]

1. So THAT's what * was referring to in the debates . Logging.

[blindpig]

2. good

and about time. Far too late for all of that forest. Lula has a tough gig, I'm glad he's addressing this portion of it. Finally.