A dark new year awaits the largest tropical forest in the world. Deforestation reached a record between January and April in the Brazilian Amazon, according to official data published Friday, May 8.
Satellite images from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), a government agency, 1,202 km2 forest thus disappeared during the first four months of this year. This deforestation is 55% higher than in the same period of 2019 and the highest over the period from January to April since the start of the monthly statistics in 2015.
These figures raise questions about the commitment of the head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, to protect the Amazon, more than 60% of which is in Brazilian territory.
The army sent to fight against deforestation
The year 2019, which marked the coming to power of the far-right president, had been marked by an unprecedented number of fires that devastated huge areas of the Amazon and attracted a flood of community criticism international on Brazil.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 85% last year, over 10,123 km2, exceeding the symbolic threshold of 10,000 km2 for the first time since these annual figures began to be reported in 2008, according to data from the INPE.
The trend for this year seems worrying as the dry season, which favors fires, does not start until the end of May.
This destruction of the forest is largely due to wild logging, mining or farming on normally protected land. Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday authorized the sending of the army to fight against deforestation and fires in the Amazon, between May 11 and June 10. But for conservationists, it would be wiser to increase the budgets and manpower of environmental agencies, some of which have seen their resources melt since coming to power.
