Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon affected 9,166 km2 in 2019, an 85% increase compared to 2018, according to preliminary data collected by the Space Research Institute INPE for this first year of government of Jair Bolsonaro. In 2018, the INPE's Deter system, based on deforestation alerts identified by satellite, had identified 4,946 km2 of deforested forest.
Deforestation is a sensitive issue in Brazil, where far-right president Jair Bolsonaro hit the headlines in August by trying to minimize the upsurge in forest fires that shocked the world. For this assumed climate-skeptic, the international defense campaigns of the Amazon are attacks on the sovereignty of Brazil which mask a will on the part of certain countries to seize these riches.
NGOs step up
In its annual report released on Tuesday, the NGO Human Rights Watch pointed to Brazil's current environmental policy. "The Bolsonaro government must stop weakening environmental protections and adopt measures against criminal groups that destroy the Amazon forest, threatening and attacking forest defenders," said HRW.
"Without any evidence, the government blamed NGOs for the fires in the Amazon, while failing in the fight against criminal groups who deforest and burn the forest to install fields and pastures in its place," the report continues.
Planet
30% increase in forest fires in the Amazon in 2019
Planet
Deforestation in the Amazon is accelerating again and again
- Planet
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- Jair Bolsonaro
- deforestation
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