• Brazil Bolsonaro shuffles censoring data on deforestation in the Amazon

Brazil has registered 83% more fires so far this year than in all of 2018 due to the fires produced in the Amazon region boosted by the dry season, with thick clouds of smoke that in recent days have covered several cities.

Between January and August 2019, 72,843 outbreaks have been registered, compared to 39,759 in the last year. The increase marks a setback after two years of decline in the indicator, according to data from the National Space Research Institute's Burn Program (INPE). The figure, until this Tuesday, is the highest since 2013.

This year Brazil leads the regional ranking of fire sources, followed by Venezuela with 26,453 and Bolivia, with 16,101. The data is obtained via satellite and updated in real time.

The figures arise after President Jair Bolsonaro, known for criticizing environmental policies, dismissed the president of INPE for the dissemination of figures that evidenced the increase in deforestation in Brazil.

Asked about the progress of the fires, the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, replied that "the government mobilized all the brigade and aircraft cash and they are already acting together with the regional governments."

The states partially or totally occupied by the Amazon rainforest (Legal Amazon) dominate the table, headed by Mato Grosso (center-west), with 13,682 fire focuses, an increase of 87% compared to all 2018.

The fires in the Amazon region are due to the burns caused to deforest a land in order to turn it into a grazing area or to clean areas already deforested, usually in the dry season, which must end within two months.

"What we are seeing is a consequence of the increase in deforestation seen in recent figures," said Ricardo Mello, of the Amazon program of the World Wildlife Fund-Brazil.

INPE revealed a sharp increase in deforestation in recent months in the Amazon, which reached 2,254.8 square kilometers in July, almost four times the same month of 2018.

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  • Brazil
  • Environment
  • Fires
  • Climate change
  • Jair Bolsonaro

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