Share this
According to official data released on November 18, the area deforested in Brazil’s Amazon reached a 15-year high, up 22 percent over the previous year.
The Brazilian Amazon lost 13,235 square kilometers of rainforest between August 2020 and July 2021, according to the Prodes monitoring system of the National Institute for Space Research. This is the highest total since 2006.
The 15-year high contradicts Bolsonaro’s recent efforts to bolster his government’s environmental credentials, including overtures to US President Joe Biden’s administration and a vow to eliminate illegal deforestation at the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow this month.
Before Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, the Brazilian Amazon has not seen more than 10,000 square kilometres of deforestation in over a decade. It averaged 6,500 square kilometres between 2009 and 2018. Since then, the annual average has risen to 11,405 square kilometres, with a three-year total larger than Maryland.
“It is a shame. It is a crime,” Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups, told The Associated Press. “We are seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by a government which made environmental destruction its public policy.”
Mr. Bolsonaro campaigned on vows to develop the Amazon, dismissing international uproar over its devastation.
His administration has undermined environmental agencies and backed legislation that weakens land regulations, giving land grabbers a boost. He told a crowd this week at a conference in the United Arab Emirates to encourage investment that assaults on Brazil for deforestation are unjustified and that much of the Amazon is still pristine.
The Environment Ministry of Brazil did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press seeking comment on the Prodes statistics showing increased deforestation.
According to the data, the state of Para accounted for 40% of deforestation from August 2020 to July 2021, the greatest of any of the Amazon’s nine states. However, when compared to Mato Grosso and Amazonas States, which combined accounted for 34% of the region’s devastation, the rise was minor. Deforestation was increased by 27% and 55% in the two states, respectively.
Early data for the 2021-2022 reference period indicates that the situation will worsen. Deter, the space agency’s monthly monitoring system, discovered increased deforestation year over year.
“This is the real Brazil that the Bolsonaro government tries to hide with fantastical speeches and actions of greenwashing abroad,” Mauricio Voivodic, international environmental group WWF’s executive director for Brazil, said in a statement after the release of the Prodes data. “The reality shows that the Bolsonaro government accelerated the path of Amazon destruction.”