Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased 150% in December, the last month of Jair Bolsonaro’s term, compared to December 2021, according to official statistics published on Friday.
Satellite images reveal that 218.4 km2 of forests were cleared last month in the Brazilian part (60%) of the largest tropical rainforest in the world, according to the DETER monitoring program.
The end of the governance of deforestation
The deforested area marks an increase of more than 150% compared to the 87.2 km2 destroyed in December 2021, according to the government agency INPE. This is the third worst month of December since the launch of the DETER program, after those of 2017 and 2015.
Jair Bolsonaro, who was succeeded last Sunday by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has unleashed an avalanche of international criticism for his destruction of the Amazon rainforest, essential to the fight against global warming, during his four years in office. .
Under the rule of the far-right president allied with the powerful agribusiness lobby, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has risen 75.5% compared to the previous decade.
“Le mandat de Bolsonaro est peut-être terminé, mais son heritage tragique va laisser des traces pour longtempos”, declared in a communiqué Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Observatoire du climat, a coalition of defense associations environment.
destruction by farmers
For the full year, deforestation in 2022 reached or approached its record levels between August and October, the favorable period of the dry season.
This destruction of the jungle is essentially the work of farmers, who want to increase their land for crops and livestock, activities whose development Jair Bolsonaro has always encouraged.
Lula has promised to relaunch environmental surveillance and protection programs that were largely dismantled under his predecessor. The international community expects forceful gestures from the new president who has appointed the ecology icon Marina Silva Minister of the Environment.
Source: BFM TV
