Brazil's Para state has created the world's biggest forest preserve, the size of Bangladesh, north of the Amazon River, one third of which will be entirely off limits to development. Two thirds of the 150,000-square-kilometer (58,000 square miles) preserve, subdivided into seven areas, will be open to logging and other industries, albeit under strict regulations and government control, said a decree signed Monday by Para Governor Simao Jatene.
"The creation of these zones represents a significant step toward the conservation of one of the biggest, contiguous blocks of tropical forest on our planet," said Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva, vice president of International Conservation (CI), which contributed to the initiative.
The forest preserve, which has the combined area of Portugal, Switzerland and Denmark, is located in one of the most remote regions of northern Brazil, where scientists have already logged more than 600 reptile, 700 bird and 195 mammal species.
CI biologist Enrico Bernard said there was "enormous potential" for finding new species in the newly created forest preserve.
"At a time when the main problem facing the world is the climate, such a gesture gives hope to the planet," Green Party president Jose Luis de Franca Pena told reporters.
Together with existing forest preserves in Amazonas and Ampa states, Brazil now boasts of a 3,000 kilometer (1,865 miles) long ecological preserve, the biggest in the world.
Source: Agence France-Presse
