A record haul of illegally cut mahogany worth about 80 million reals (US$29m) has been seized in Brazil.
In a statement posted on its website, the environmental agency Ibama says the 7,000 logs of mahogany, cut from an Indian reservation in the Amazonian state of Para, were found tied together and floating for almost one mile along the Xingu river.
Ibama estimates that at the current rate of deforestation there will be no mahogany left in the Amazon within eight years.
Brazil outlawed the trade, transport and logging of mahogany last year after finding 70% of the timber was being logged illegally and stepped up its fight in February.
The European Commission told EU states in March not to allow shipments of mahogany from the Amazon into Europe without ensuring the timber was legally felled first.
The biggest markets for mahogany are in the US, Canada, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium.
