To combat ongoing destruction in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil announced a plan to dramatically expand selective logging over the next two years. In Brazil, vast forest lands are designated as public yet have no special protection or enforcement and are vulnerable to land grabbing and illegal deforestation. …“The main goal of forest concessions is the conservation of these areas,” said Renato Rosenberg, director of forest concessions. “They also create jobs and income in parts of the Amazon that would otherwise have little economic activity.” Companies that get timber concessions have to follow strict rules. They can log up to six trees per hectare over a 30-year period. Protected species, such as Brazil nut, and older, seed-producing trees are off limits. …The idea is that granting permission to timber companies to take a limited number of trees gives them a stake in overseeing the forest, something the Brazilian government cannot afford to do.