Brazil’s government has been named as the worst illegal logger of Amazon forests by one of its own departments.
The Environment Ministry has drawn up a list of the 100 worst offenders and says all of them will be charged.
Topping the list was the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), a government department which distributes land to the poor.
The revelation came after an official report revealed that deforestation in the Amazon region was gathering pace.
The six largest deforested areas since 2005 all belonged to Incra, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said.
In total 550,000 acres of the world’s largest rainforest was destroyed on those six properties.
Greenpeace has accused Incra officials of illegally handing over rainforest to logging companies and creating fake settlements to skirt environmental regulations.
More… ➡