BRASILIA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's newly-appointed Environment Minister Carlos Minc announced a series of measures to fight illegal deforestation in the Amazon region, local media reported on Wednesday.

    Cattle raised illegally in the region will be confiscated, and all illegal lumber and timber that have been c ut down will be confiscated and auctioned off to finance the social program "No Hunger," Minc said.

    The grains and foods grown in these areas will also be cut down and auctioned off to aid the program, he said.

    The measure demonstrates a "message that we want to send out to all those who are deforesting the area," the minister said.

    The operations against illegal cattle will have a "minimal" effect on Brazil's economy, he said.

    "The rounding-up of some 1,000 heads of cattle will not affect Brazil's meat exports," he said.

    Minc said the soaring prices of soybean and meat have given additional incentive to the illegal farming invasion and deforestation of the Amazon.

    "Time is running out and the situation is worrisome," he said.

    Defending the government's measures as "the right thing to do," Minc said its aim "is to substitute a model of sustainable development for a predatory model of production."

    In April alone, a region the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro was deforested, and according to Minc, "the worst is yet to come."

    A study by the National Institute of Spatial Research showed that every 10 seconds an area equivalent to the size of a soccer field is cut down.

    "With the data that we have obtained, we have affirmed with certainty that there has been an increase in the deforestation of the Amazon. The process of devastation of the forestland is much more intense than we had imagined," Gilberto Camara, director of the institute, was quoted as saying by local media.