Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Environmental authorities shut down an illegal logging operation in the Amazon on Monday.

The raid yielded dozens of felled tropical hardwood trees in an area that only recently was pristine rain forest.

The Norte Wood logging company was operating without a license in the Amazonas state town of Novo Aripuana, some 1,600 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

This was the largest seizure (17,655 cubic feet of wood) of illegal hardwood this year in Amazonas, the country's largest state.

An overflight revealed extensive logging in the region, which only recently was largely untouched rain forest where scientists had discovered several new monkey species.

Over the past three years, loggers from the neighboring state of Para have been moving to Novo Aripuana after having largely deforested the southern edge of their home state.

Brazil's environmental regulations require landowners to maintain 80 percent of Amazon's forested areas. Logging is permitted in the forest reserve, but companies must file management plans to show their logging is carried out in a sustainable manner, with minimal damage to the forest.

Scientists say the deforestation reduces the area's rich biodiversity and contributes to global warming. Burning in the Brazilian Amazon releases about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, about 5.4 percent of the world total.

Brazil's rain forest is the size of Western Europe and covers 60 percent of the country's territory. Experts say as much as 20 percent of its 4.1 square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) has already been destroyed by development, logging and farming.

Source: Associated Press