The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed nearly 50 percent in the last three years, but that trend has been reversed according to a new report. In Mato Grosso, the state where most forest is being eliminated, the devastation has increased since May, and in August reached 250 square kilometers — 138 percent more than in August 2006, according to the study by the Deforestation Alert System, created by the Center of Life Institute (ICV) and the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon.

The recovery of international soy and beef prices and the boom in biofuels caused this turnaround, stimulating the expansion of the farm and livestock frontier, said ICV coordinator Sergio Guimaraes. “It is not irreversible if the government adopts effective measures,” he told Tierramérica.

From June to September, forest-clearing fires increased 72 percent.