The settlements created or officialized by Brazilian agrarian reform in 2008 contributed 21 percent of deforestation in the nine states that are part of the Amazon jungle, according to a new report by the national agrarian reform and settlements institute, INCRA. Among the 869 settlements in the biome, some 60 deforested half of the 251,600 hectares of forest that were cut down, mostly in the northern state of Pará, says the study, presented May 11.

Violations of the law on all properties, not just in settlements; the lack of INCRA assistance to local residents; the onslaught of clandestine logging operations, “which buy timber at a meager price and accelerate deforestation”, are some of the causes of this situation, Marco Ximenes, director of the Institute of Amazonian Environmental Research, told Tierramérica.