From January to June, 3,988 square kilometers were cleared in the region, according to data released on Friday by the Brazilian space research agency Inpe. That’s an area five times the size of New York City. Compared to the same months last year, this is an increase of more than ten percent.
It is the highest reading for this period since the agency began compiling its current data series in mid-2015. “If we have high deforestation numbers, it is inevitable that we will also have high fire numbers,” said Manoela Machado, researcher on wildfires and deforestation at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the University of Oxford.
Brazil recorded the highest number of fires in the Amazon in 15 years in June, although these fires represent a fraction of what normally occurs in August and September, when fires peak, according to Inpe data. Under international pressure from the US and Europe, the Brazilian government under President Jair Bolsonaro pledged to end illegal logging by 2028. At the world climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, the government, together with more than 100 other countries, signed a global agreement that provides for the end of large-scale deforestation.
Scientists accuse the government of tolerating illegal deforestation. Speculators reckoned with impunity and would clear primeval forest areas again and again. The free area is used for the cultivation of soya and cattle breeding.
Source: Nachrichten
