Brazil 🇧🇷 minister: Amazon deforestation 🌳 'drops by 16%'

Amazon deforestation was down by 16% in the year to July 2017 compared to the previous 12 months, the Brazilian government says.

Satellite date suggest 6,624 sq km (2,460 sq miles) of forest were destroyed, down from 7,893 km sq in 2015/16, Environment Minister Jose Sarney Filho said.

"When the illegal loggers know that [officers of] the Brazilian State are on location, they diminish their activities," he said.

While deforestation diminished by 55% in Tocantins state and by 43% in Roraima, it rose by a massive 86% in Amapa, according to the satellite data gathered by the Programme for the Estimation of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (PRODES).

Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher for non-profit Amazon institute Imazon, told Reuters news agency that Brazil's economic recession and a drop in livestock prices were probably the major causes of the decline.

UCJ, UNILORIN.