Last Year, Amazon Rainforest Witnessed Record Deforestation
Revised government data recently showed that deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest was worse than previously reported in 2019, during the first year of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), recorded 10,129 square kilometre of deforestation (3,911 square miles) for its benchmark annual period from August 2018 to July 2019. That’s an area about the size of Lebanon and a 34.4% rise from the same period a year earlier.
The revision is higher than INPE’s initial report of 9,762 sq km of forest destroyed during that period – an increase of 29.5%. The 2019 data remains the highest level of deforestation seen in Brazil’s Amazon since 2008. INPE reviews the data each year to adjust its precision as standard practice.
According to INPE’s short-term deforestation alert system called DETER, forest loss in 2020 is pacing well ahead of last year’s rate. Through mid-May 2020 over 6,000 sq km of the forest had been cleared since August 1, 2019. It’s 85% more than the same time last year and the fastest rate of loss since at least 2007.
Brazil is home to roughly 60% of the Amazon, world’s largest rainforest. Scientists say protection of the Amazon is vital to curbing climate change, because of the vast amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs. Environmentalists and scientific researchers blame right-wing Bolsonaro’s policies of encouraging illegal loggers, farmers, and land speculators to clear the jungle. Bolosonaro urged the development of the Amazon, including protected areas, as a way to lift residents of the area out of poverty.
Brazil is about to enter into its dry season, the same typical season when the bulk of deforestation and fire occurs in the Amazon. Last year fires in the Amazon made global headlines. Scientists are afraid that continued deforestation could convert the Amazon rainforest into a drier region and could affect the region’s biodiversity, rainfall patterns, and forest-dependent peoples.