Conservation in Brazil

Brazil environmental agency Ibama will decide on French oil firm Total’s application to drill in the environmentally sensitive Amazon river basin before the end of May, and possibly as soon as the end of March, an agency official told Reuters on Feb. 21.

Deforestation in Brazil's storied Amazon basin region skyrocketed more than 450 percent in October from a year earlier, a non-governmental group warned Nov. 17.
      
The alarming loss was the equivalent of 24,000 football pitches, said Imazon, which works to support sustainable development in the massive and unique ecosystem.