Brazilian National Parks Underfunded, Routinely Poached, Mined And Logged - Reuters

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Of 299 protected areas, 57 percent have no permanent law enforcement officials, 76 percent have no management plan, and nearly one-third have no manager, an internal study showed.

"We discovered a very serious problem and we called the public to show this ecological striptease," Environment Minister Carlos Minc told a news conference in Brasilia. "The current situation is not sustainable," he added.

In the Bom Futuro or "Good Future" National Park in northwestern Rondonia state, around 1,600 wildcat miners, farmers, loggers, and ranchers are raiding natural resources. In some years the rate of deforestation in protected areas of the Amazon was higher than in unprotected areas, Minc said.

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The departure of Silva, seen as a guardian of the Amazon, had raised concern among environmental groups over rising deforestation rates. Since then, Minc has spearheaded a series of crackdowns on illegal soybean farmers, loggers and ranchers. But experts say better conservation requires additional funds and logistics. In many reserves, park guards are far outnumbered by heavily armed and well equipped intruders. The guards often lack vehicles, gasoline, and guns.

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49274/story.htm

[mikelgb]

1. a brazillian? damn , that's a lot...