Brazil lost 3,750 square kilometers (1,448 square miles) of the world’s largest rainforest between January 1st and June 24th, according to INPE satellite data. This is the largest area since 2016 when the institute started this kind of monitoring.
The INPE satellite has set a new monthly deforestation record since the beginning of this year, and last month also recorded a record 2,562 fires in the country’s Amazon.
May and June generally indicate that due to the dry season, significant burning and deforestation begin each year in the Amazon.
In May, INPE detected 2,287 fires in the rainforest. This is the highest number for the month since 2004.
Since President Jail Borsonaro took office in 2019, he claims that the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest has surged, environmental protection has weakened, and economic development that can reduce poverty in the Amazon region has been hampered.
The president has passed several presidential orders and laws to protect the rainforest, but at the same time cuts funding for government-run environmental protection and surveillance programs and opens up indigenous lands to commercial agriculture and mining. Promoted to do.
In October 2021, a group of climate lawyers requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged attacks on Amazon by Bolsonaro.
However, the Brazilian president opposed international critics for better protection of the rainforest.
In early May, Bolsonaro blamed Leonardo DiCaprio, and after talking about Amazon’s environmental importance, the actor said it was better to “keep his mouth closed.”
Some scientists predict that deforestation will continue to increase prior to Brazil’s October presidential election, as it has done in advance of the last three elections.
According to Carlos Souza Jr., a researcher at Imazon, a Brazilian research institute, environmental enforcement usually weakens during the election year, and criminals may rush deforestation prior to the new government’s inauguration.
Source: www.cnn.com
