Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached 904 km² in October, a record for this month of the year, according to official data released on Friday, less than two months before the end of the term of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The DETER satellite observation system, in use since 2015, detected a 3% increase in the deforested area in the largest tropical forest on the planet compared to October 2021. The data was recorded by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). ).
In just ten months, the year 2022 is already the worst in this statistical series of deforestation in the Amazon, with 9,494 km² of vegetation wiped off the map, breaking the record of 9,178 km² for all of 2021.
+75% deforestation per year under Bolsonaro
The Brazilian branch of the NGO WWF stressed in a press release that deforestation and fires had “exploded” in the Amazon since the result of the presidential elections.
On October 30, Jair Bolsonaro, accused by environmentalists of favoring the destruction of the Amazon, was headbutted by former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), committed to the fight for zero deforestation.
“The increase in deforestation (in October) was expected, but the preliminary data from the first days of November are scary, it is a true frantic race for devastation” before the change of government, laments WWF.
Under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the average annual deforestation increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.
“Busy”
President-elect Lula, who will begin his third term on January 1, confirmed Thursday that he will travel to COP27 in Egypt early next week, where he could announce the first guidelines of his environmental policy.
“The new government will have a lot of work to do to get the country back on track, to end the perception that the Amazon is a land without law,” says Raúl do Valle, from WWF, quoted in the NGO statement.
The environmental policy of the Bolsonaro government “is still going to cause damage for some time, it will be a great challenge to change the situation, but it is inevitable that Brazil will once again be a leader in the climate debate,” adds André Freitas, from Green Peace in Brazil.
Source: BFM TV
