The inventory of the forests that cover approximately 40 percent of Venezuela's 916,500 square kilometers should be ready by 2012, project director Leonardo Lugo of the Environment Ministry told Tierramérica. Fieldwork has already begun in the state of Amazonas, in Venezuela's far south, he said.

“The project will quantify the country's forest resources and provide key elements for territorial regulation plans,” Lugo said.

It will also serve as a “guideline for the National Forestry Plan by providing the characteristics of each forest,” such as density, altitude, degree of destruction, landscape, climate, and biomass.

The environmental group Vitalis noted that Venezuela “presents a high rate of deforestation, at least 200,000 hectares per year,” part of which can be attributed to illegal gold mining in the southeastern state of Guayana.