According to government data, Brazil saw the most Amazon rainforest deforestation for January. The destruction continues despite recent government pledges to reduce it.
According to preliminary satellite data from Inpe, Brazil’s Amazon saw deforestation of 430 km (166 miles) in January. This is 5 times more than January 2021. This is the highest level of deforestation since the current data series began in 2015/2016. It’s equivalent to an area seven times larger that Manhattan.
According to environmental researchers, they weren’t surprised to see the destruction continuing to rise due right-wing President Jairbolsonaro’s weakening in environmental protections. Britaldo S. Filho, an environmental modeling researcher from the Federal University of Minas Gerais said that speculators are increasingly clearing forests for illegal land grabs. The demand for cheap land is also increasing due to high prices for beef, soy, and other commodities.
Soares Filho stated that “people might be surprised that this didn’t increase further.” “There is a race for the Amazon to be deforested.”
Bolsonaro’s office, as well as the Environment Ministry, did not immediately respond when asked for comment on the government’s environmental policies or the deforestation figures. Because of the immense amount of greenhouse gas absorbed by its trees and the Amazon, preservation of this rainforest is essential to curbing climate change.
Bolsonaro has long advocated for more commercial farming and mining to lift the Amazon out of poverty. Brazil signed a global agreement to stop forest destruction by 2030, despite international pressure from Europe and the United States.
Inpe released data soon after these commitments that showed that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in 2021 reached its highest point in 15-years. The destruction is not stopping. Ana Karine Pereira is a political scientist at University of Brasilia. She said that Bolsonaro and his government changed the tone last year but their policies remain the exact same.
Pereira and Soares Filho said that deforestation would only stop increasing if Bolsonaro loses October’s presidential election. Pereira stated that it was crucial to change the political profile of the president, and the federal government leadership in order to see a halt in the trend of high deforestation.
High levels of deforestation in the current rainy period is uncommon, as the rainforest is more difficult to access for loggers. The January data showed that the amount of new clearing was still less then half of what was common in peak months between June and September. Inpe’s deforestation monitoring researcher said that the sudden increase in clearing last month could have been partly due to the higher levels of cloud cover in November or December than the previous years.
The person speaking on condition of anonymity said that those clouds could have shielded satellites from destruction in the months between December and January. Despite this, cloud coverage declined to 43% in January, from 54% in Dec.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff. It is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.