Protected area in the Amazon rain forest has nearly doubled in the past three years, a government official said Saturday, according to The Associated Press. More than 70 million hectares (173 million acres) of the forest legally will be either off-limits to development or reserved only for sustainable use by the end of the year, said Tasso Azevedo, director of Brazil's Forest Service. Only about 30 million hectares (74 million acres) had been declared protected before 2003, when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office pledging to decrease deforestation, Azevedo said. The federal government has since declared the protection of almost 20 million hectares (49 million acres), while state authorities protected an additional 8 million hectares (19 million acres).
