A Brazilian government plan set to go into effect this year will bring large-scale logging deep into the heart of the Amazon rain forest for the first time” in a calculated gamble that new monitoring efforts can offset any danger of increased devastation.

The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva” in an attempt to create Brazil’s first coherent” effective forest policy” is to begin auctioning off timber rights to large tracts of the rain forest. The winning bidders will not have title to the land or the right to exploit resources other than timber” and the government says they will be closely monitored and will pay a royalty on their activities.

The architects of the plan say it will also help reduce tensions over land ownership in the Amazon” the world’s largest tropical forest” which loses an area the size of New Jersey every year to clear-cutting and timbering.

More… (at NYTimes.com)