During the first four months of the year, the cut-off rate increased by 55 percent, compared with the same period last year, according to satellite images from Brazil's National Space Research Institute.

"Unfortunately, it looks like we can expect record-breaking fires and devastation this year," Greenpeace spokesman Rômulo Batista writes in a statement.

Concerns experts

In total, 1,202 square kilometers of forest were destroyed between January and April, an area that is over 2.5 times the size of Gothenburg. It is the largest decomposed area at this time of year since the measurements began in August 2015.

The fact that such large quantities of forest have been harvested so early in the year is worrying experts, as the peak season for forest harvesting usually begins only at the end of May.

"The beginning of the year is usually not the time of year when the logging is done, because it is raining, and it is raining a lot," says Erika Berenguer, environmental scientist at the universities of Oxford and Lancaster.

Caused by record-breaking fires

Last year, a total of 10,123 square kilometers of forest were cut down in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, an increase of 85 percent and the highest record to date in one year.

The deforestation was caused by record-breaking forest fires, together with illegal logging, mining and agriculture on protected lands.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who will take office in 2019, has advocated opening protected areas for mining and agriculture.