On Wednesday, the environmental minister of Brazil said that they have built a crisis center to address the issue of increasing deforestation in the rainforests in the Amazon.

Minister Izabella Teixeria told the press that they had to do something to address this issue after data taken from a satellite feed showed a very significant rise in deforestation in just the last two months. Last year, Brazil had the lowest yearly deforestation rate ever since they started recording the data more than 20 years ago.

Teixeria mentioned that a crisis committee is now in place to determine the causes of the increase and do something about it in a timely manner. The committee includes federal police, environmental agents, state agents, and highway federal police. The committee is set to meet weekly from here on forward.

Last year, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest dropped to its lowest in 22 years. Now, a total of 230 square miles of deforestation were observed between March and April; almost six times more than the deforestation rate in the same period in 2010.

Government officials were very happy with the data they collected last year. However, experts have already predicted that it may be just a result of the global economic decline and the deforestation rate will shoot up again as the world’s finances improve. Once it does, the demand for cattle and soy from the Amazon will also increase and farmers will start clearing the rainforests again to make way for those commodities.

The new crisis center in Brazil is working double time to make sure that the increase in deforestation does not persist.