Brazil dismantles 'biggest destroyer' of Amazon rainforest

The authorities in Brazil say they have dismantled a criminal organisation they believe was the "biggest destroyer" of the Amazon rainforest.

The gang is accused of invading, logging and burning large areas of public land and selling these illegally for farming and grazing.

In a statement, Brazilian Federal Police said the group committed crimes worth more than $220m (£134m).

A federal judge has issued 14 arrest warrants for alleged gang members.

Twenty-two search warrants were also issued and four suspects are being called in for questioning.

The police operation covers four Brazilian states, including Sao Paulo.

Five men and a woman have already been arrested in Para state in the north of the country, Globo news reported.

'Impunity'

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro says details are still sketchy, partly because the police operation is focused on one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the Amazon region.

Political and police corruption is still rife in Brazil's interior, our correspondent adds.

That problem coupled with alleged ineptitude on the part of the federal government means that loggers and illegal miners are able to operate with impunity, he says.

The Amazon rainforest is home to half of the planet's remaining tropical forests

The police announced the operation in a statement: "The Federal Police carried out today Operation Chestnut Tree designed to dismantle a criminal organisation specialising in land grabbing and environmental crimes in the city of Novo Progresso, in the south-western region of Para.

"Those involved in these criminal actions are considered the greatest destroyers of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest."

'Fifty years'

The group members face charges of invading public land, theft, environmental crimes, forgery, conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering.

They could be sentenced to up to 50 years in jail, although the maximum length that can be served by law in a Brazilian prison is 30 years.

Last year, the Brazilian government said the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and July 2013, after years of decline.

It made a commitment in 2009 to reduce Amazon deforestation by 80% by the year 2020.

Brazil is home to the biggest area of Amazon rainforest, a vast region where one in 10 known species on Earth and half of the planet's remaining tropical forests are found, according to the leading conservation organisation WWF.

From BBC Sci/Environment

Madagascar pochard, world's rarest bird, needs new home

The Madagascar pochard, the world's rarest bird, needs a new home say scientists.

The birds only live in one location because human activity has reduced their habitat but it is not that suitable for them.

A study in the journal Bird Conservation International that revealed that 96% of the chicks die after a couple of weeks because they can't get enough food.

Scientists want to find a new site.

The wetland where the ducks survive is too deep for young ducklings to dive for food

Food source

The problem seems to be that the birds are not able to dive to the bottom of the lake where they live to get food because it is too deep.

Dr Geoff Hilton, head of species research at The Wetlands and Wildlife Trust said: "The place where the species hangs on at the end is not a particularly good place for them - it's just the place that's been least badly affected by human activities."

There are now plans to move the birds to a better site.

Dr Hilton said: "We have recently identified a lake that we think has potential to be restored and become a reintroduction site.

From CBBC newsround

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New Antarctic atlas offers index of marine life

The most complete audit ever assembled of Antarctic sea life is to be published this week.

Cushion stars, feeding on seal faeces in shallow water off Antarctica

More than 9,000 species, from single-cell organisms to penguins and whales, are chronicled in the first Antarctic atlas since 1969.

The book will be launched by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research at its Open Science Conference in Auckland, New Zealand.

Across 66 chapters, the atlas contains around 100 colour photos and 800 maps.

It is called the Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean.

Humpback whales, weighing around 36 tonnes, migrate into Antarctic waters to feed during the summer

Maps illustrate data such as the proportion of the year spent under sea ice (left), and the number of species reported across the length and breadth of the ocean (right)

"It's been an enormous international effort and will serve as a legacy to the dedicated team of scientists who have contributed to it," said Dr Huw Griffiths, one of the atlas's authors and editors, from the British Antarctic Survey.

Dr Griffiths said he hoped the atlas would appeal to "anyone interested in animals living at the end of the Earth".

This Antarctic sea anemone ranges from the shallows to over 3km deep, and has 96 tentacles

Adélie penguins currently inhabit the entire Antarctic coast

All together 147 scientists from 91 different institutions around the world contributed to the work, which has taken four years.

They hope the publication will help inform conservation policy, such as the issue of whether marine protected areas should be established in open swathes of the Southern Ocean.

The data include the distribution of different species, insights into their evolution and genetics, their interaction with the physical environment and the impacts of climate change.

Researchers hope the information can help predict how the habitats and distribution of important species will change in the future.

From BBC Sci/Environment

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