A recent study says illegal loggers have destroyed about 18,500 square kilometers of public forests over the past six years in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.
But, the study says, the nation's Federal Police do not investigate the loss enough. That means they are neither part of a national park nor are they considered native territories. Official data says the Brazilian Amazon has about 580,000 square kilometers of unallocated forest. That is an area almost the size of Ukraine. The public forests have become a target for criminals who illegally seize land. Igarap茅 Institute, a Brazilian policy research group, released the study.