BRAZILIAN POLICE SEIZE RECORD VOLUME OF ILLEGAL LUMBER

Brazilian federal police officers have seized a record amount of illegally cleared timber, officials in the northern state of Para, on the border with the Amazon region, said, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Officials had secured more than 131,000 cubic meters of wood, which corresponds to 6,243 truckloads, the federal police said in a statement. Never before had such a large amount been confiscated at once.

The Brazilian News portal G1 said the previous record was about half as large. The timber was reportedly worth about 55 million reals (more than $10 million).

Deforestation of rainforests in Brazil's Amazon region has reached a 12-year high, the space agency Inpe, which is responsible for monitoring the rainforest, said earlier this month.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro sees the region primarily as untapped economic potential and wants to develop even more land for agriculture, mining and energy production.

He has rejected international criticism of his environmental policy as interference in domestic affairs.

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