In Brazil, thousands of square kilometers of rainforest are destroyed each year, and this year's depletion of nature reaches its highest level since 2008: According to the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, a total of 7900 square kilometers of forest were cut between August 2017 and July 2018. This corresponds to an area of more than one million soccer fields.
Deforestation has risen by more than 13 percent since last year. Environment Minister Edson Duarte cited illegal logging as the reason and blamed "increased organized crime". Brazil must expand the fight against environmental violations and protect the sustainable development of the biome.
Most trees were cleared in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso. Mato Grosso grows much of Brazil's grain. According to critics, the forest has to give way above all to expanding agriculture.
The rainforest in the Amazon region is the largest on Earth. Much of the forest lies on Brazilian territory. Newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro had announced in the election campaign to have a road paved through the rainforest. He is also considering merging the environment with the Ministry of Agriculture. Minister Duarte warned against the merger. Critics fear that environmental protection, with the merger behind the interests of the powerful agricultural lobbies must stand behind.
In the past year, the deforestation of the rainforest had fallen by 16 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to almost 7,000 square kilometers. The lowest level was reached in 2012, when only 4500 square kilometers of forest were cleared.
In 2004, the then government adopted measures to combat deforestation. In the year, an area the size of Haiti - over 27,000 square kilometers was cut down.