For 15 years now, the surface of the Amazon has never suffered such intense deforestation as in the 12 months from August 2020 to July 2021: 13,235 square kilometers of forests have been cut down, an area equal to that of Campania. , published Thursday 18 November by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, thanks to the Prodes monitoring system.
The peak – there has never been so much deforested land since 2006 – clashes with recent attempts by the Bolsonaro government to bolster its environmental credibility, after opening the administration of United States President Joe Biden and pursuing its pledge to end illegal deforestation at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month.
In three years, forests have disappeared for a larger area than Belgium
The space agency’s report, released Thursday, is dated October 27, before talks begin in Glasgow. The Brazilian Amazon had not experienced a year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade before Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure began. in January 2019: between 2009 and 2018 the average was 6,500 square kilometers. Since then, the annual average has jumped to 11,405 square kilometers, and the three-year total is an area larger than Belgium.
“It’s a crime,” commented Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of non-profit environmental groups. “We are witnessing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest by a government that has made environmental destruction its policy.”
Bolsonaro took office with a promise to develop the Amazon, fending off global protests. His administration dismantled environmental authorities and supported legislative measures to relax the protection of the land by encouraging the hoarders. At a conference in the United Arab Emirates this week to attract investment, the Brazilian president told the crowd that attacks on Brazil for deforestation are unfair and that much of the Amazon remains untouched.