A new satellite survey of the Amazon has revealed that rainforests are being destroyed twice as quickly as previously thought.
An estimated 5,800 square miles of forest are burned or clear-cut every year – but evidence obtained through new technology shows that when selective logging is taken into the equation that figure is doubled.
Areas in the five main timber production states of the Brazilian Amazon have been identified where trees have been thinned, due mostly to selective logging.
Carnegie scientist Gregory Asner said the new technology could detect openings in the forest canopy down to just one or two individual trees.
Speaking in the journal Science he said a large mahogany tree could fetch hundreds of dollars, tempting people to go into the forest to remove merchantable species.
He added: “Mahogany is the one everybody knows about, but in the Amazon there are at least 35 marketable hardwood species, and the damage that occurs from taking out just a few trees at a time is enormous.
“On average, for every tree removed, up to 30 more can be severely damaged by the timber harvesting operation itself.”
