There has been, for many years, a continual global lobby for the Brazilian government to assume a far more militant posture in the matter of the destruction by artisanal miners of the country’s portion of the 5 million plus acres of Amazon rainforest. A consensus now appears to have been arrived at that the lobby has failed and that other measures need to be applied.
Last month Amazon watchers were reporting further vast areas of charred tree trunks, evidence that illegal loggers in Brazil continue to operate with what are believed to be the customary lacklustre restraints.