Brazil has registered more forest fires in the Amazon in less than nine months than in all of 2021, according to official figures published this Monday. Satellites from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) have identified 75,592 fires in the largest tropical forest on the planet since January 2022, compared to 75,090 in total last year.
This month of September is especially devastating: in just one week, the number of outbreaks detected in the Amazon was already higher than the total for that same month of 2021.
“A Tragedy Foretold”
In September of last year, the institute had registered 16,742 fires, a number however much lower than that of the same month of 2020 (32,017) or the monthly average registered between 1998 and 2021 (32,110). But in just three weeks this year, almost 30,000 outbreaks have already been identified since the beginning of the month, which could be one of the worst on record.
“These forest fires are a tragedy foretold. During the four years of the mandate (of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro), we have lived through one of the darkest periods for our environment,” reacted André Freitas, spokesman for the Brazilian branch of Greenpeace in the Amazon. .
“All those who practice illegal activities have taken advantage of this context to advance in the jungle,” he lamented.
Deforestation on the rise since 2019
President Bolsonaro, who will seek re-election on October 2, is accused in particular of favoring mining and agricultural exploitation in the Amazon, to the detriment of the jungle.
According to some experts, deforestation and forest fires are intensifying this year, as Jair Bolsonaro is trailing in the polls by leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who promises to be more rigorous in preserving the environment.
Since Bolsonaro came to power in January 2019, the average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade. In August, deforestation covered 1,661 km2, almost double the area deforested during the same period last year (918 km2).
Source: BFM TV
