In Brazil, forest fires have never been so numerous in 10 years
The Amazon rainforest experienced 103,000 fires in 2020 (illustrative image).
© AP - Leo Correa
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Forest fires are at their highest in ten years in Brazil, with a record annual increase of 12.7%, according to statistics released this Sunday by the National Institute for Space Research.
Nearly half of these fires started in the Amazon.
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There have been 103,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon, an annual increase of nearly 16% out of a total of 222,798 across the Brazilian territory in the past year, underlines the INPE report which has recourse to satellite imagery to track forest fires and deforestation.
This figure also includes more than 22,000 fires in the Pantanal, located in the south of the Amazon.
Sanctuary of biodiversity and the largest wetland on the planet, it has been devastated over almost a quarter of its surface with a 120% increase in fires in 2020.
The largest forest in the world reduced by 8% in 20 years
The Amazon, considered vital for combating global warming and of which 62% of the surface is located in Brazil, and the Pantanal are the two most precious ecosystems in the world.
The situation has only worsened since the election in 2019 of
far-right President Jair Bolsonaro
, in favor of opening up protected areas and indigenous territories to mining and agriculture.
In August 2020 alone, deforestation reached a larger area than Jamaica, a 12-year record, according to the INPE.
The fires are started primarily by individuals seeking to expand grazing and cultivation areas, experts say.
Deforestation in the Amazon
between 2000 and 2018 reached 513,016 km2, an area as large as Spain, amputating the largest tropical forest in the world by 8%, the Amazonian socio-information network reported on December 8. -environmental geographical (Raisg), collective of researchers and NGOs.
(With
AFP
)
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Brazil
Environment
Amazonia