The governor of the Brazilian State of Pará, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, has just signed a law that creates a network of protected areas covering over 16.5 million hectares, an area larger than England.

The law creates the largest set of protected areas in Pará's history. Under the new law, 59 percent of the state (an increase of 13 percent) and 42 percent of the Brazilian Amazon are now protected. The law is intended to slow and stop the loss of biodiversity and illegal deforestation.

Earlier this year, WRI and Imazon released a comprehensive geospatial analysis of human activities and their impacts on forest degradation and conversion. Imazon used an updated human pressure analysis to help identify and prioritize new protected areas. The work was part of the information that Imazon provided to the Pará government to help it make better informed protection decisions.

RELATED LINKS:

Human Pressure on the Brazilian Amazon Forests

EarthTrends

Feature: Fragmenting Forests: The Loss of Large Frontier Forests

Data Table: Forestry Production and Trade 2005

Brazil Country Profile: Forests, Grasslands and Drylands

Forests, Grasslands and Drylands Searchable Database

The content of this article has been repurposed for EarthTrends. The original version of this article appeared on the WRI homepage.