Brazilian president signs Atlantic habitat protection into law
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday approved a new law to protect the Atlantic shore jungle, a habitat which is in danger of extinction.

"Nothing could be more symbolic, at the end of a year, to sign into a law a measure that pays a debt to our past," said Lula at a signing ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia.

The jungle, which covered 1 million square meters when it was discovered, is diminishing at a speed of around 100,000 hectares a year, and only occupies seven percent of its original area at present.

During his speech, Lula listed the environmental progress achieved in the last four years, including the Public Forests Management Law and the reduction of the Amazon deforestation rate. The rate of deforestation had been reduced by 52 percent in the past several years.

Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva noted that the new law provides incentives to recover the degraded forest and confine the economic exploitation of the jungle to sustainable development projects.

With help from the central government, a fund has been established to help regenerate areas that have been in danger, but not completely destroyed.