The deforestation rate in Brazil's Amazon, the world's largest jungle, has jumped 40 percent, sparking alarm yesterday among environmentalists and a promise by the government to launch emergency measures. "This is shocking," said Mario Monzoni, a project coordinator for Friends of the Earth group in Brazil. "The rate of deforestation should be falling, instead the opposite is happening." Preliminary figures from the Environment Ministry, released late this week, showed deforestation in the Amazon jumped to 9,840 square miles (25,476 sq km) last year -- the highest since 1995 -- from 7,010 square miles (18,166 sq km) in 2001.