Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon decreased between August 2021 and July 2022, but overall has risen sharply since current President Jair Bolsonaro came to power, according to official data released Wednesday.
Some 11,568 km2 of forests, corresponding to an area larger than that of Qatar, were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon between August 2021 and July 2022, the reference period analyzed by the PRODES satellite monitoring system of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). ). in Brazil.
Deforestation between August 2021 and July 2022 was thus reduced by 11.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, when the INPE had registered 13,038 km2 of destroyed forests, the highest figure in 15 years.
Increase in deforestation during the Bolsonaro presidency
This decline in deforestation, however, caps four years of what environmental activists describe as disastrous management of the Amazon under the far-right sitting president.
Since he came to power, average annual deforestation has increased by 59.5% over the previous four years, and 75.5% over the previous decade, according to INPE.
Jair Bolsonaro’s successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), has vowed to fight for zero deforestation when he takes office on January 1 for a third term, after ruling the country from 2003 to 2010.
“The Bolsonaro government has been a machine to destroy forests,” Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental organizations, said in a statement. “Jair Bolsonaro will laissez à son successeur de l’un héritage répugnant de déforestation gallopante et d’Amazonie en flammes”, ajoute-t-il, exhortant l’ancien président Lula à faire preuve de “tolérance zéro” à l’égard des crimes contre l ‘environment.
Near a “tipping point”
According to experts, the vast majority of clearings and fires that ravage the Amazon are intended to create agricultural land, especially for cattle ranching, while Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef.
Environmental activists accuse Jair Bolsonaro of destroying Brazil’s environmental protection programs and encouraging the destruction of forests through his agribusiness and mining policies.
“The Amazon is getting closer to a tipping point,” said Mariana Napolitano, scientific director of the Brazilian office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Source: BFM TV
