Brazil beams in on deforestation.

• Author: Goethals, Henry
• Position: For International Space Year 1992

Brazil has agreed to contribute previously unavailable satellite and groundbased data on the Amazon rain forest as part of an International Space Year (ISY) scheduled for 1992. Brazil will lead an ISY project which scientists say will provide the first collective assessment of global deforestation ever made.

The project will integrate a wealth of data provided by satellites and ground monitoring stations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Latin America, Africa and Asia. First results are expected to be available this year, with a full report to be published during the ISY in 1992.

Roberto Pereira da Cunha, director of remote sensing at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacais (INPE), the Brazilian national space agency, says that the project demonstrates a level of international cooperation never before achieved. The use...