Destruction of the Amazonian tropical jungles in Brazil dropped by 60 percent in July, compared with June, Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc said on Friday.
An official announcement is yet to come, pending the processing of further data, he told reporters.
A drop of 60 and 70 percent in illegal felling was registered in July compared with the same period of previous year, he said.
The deforestation in the Amazonian region was reduced to 870 square km (87,000 hectares) in June this year, which amounted to the destruction of an area as big as a soccer field every minute, Minc said.
The National Institute of Special Investigations under the Science and Technology Ministry used two sets of satellite images to identify the devastated areas.
Minc attributed the slower pace of deforestation to shifting the focus to curb wood transportation in the Amazonian region by the National Institute of Environment.
Now the prosecutors of the environment institute are focusing their attention on major highway crossings in the region, ensuring effective control over routes for trucks transporting wood.
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