Amazon deforestation rises for fourth straight month
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has risen for the fourth month straight, according to new data from the nation's national space research institute INPE.
The firm revealed 1,062 acres of forest has been lost since June last year - an increase of roughly 2% - amid fears the upward trajectory of deforestation could increase the risk of wildfires during the upcoming dry season.
Read more: UK food businesses warn Brazilian Congress over Amazon land bill
This marks the third consecutive month deforestation has risen. While still lagging behind last year's figures by roughly 11%, when deforestation levels reached a 12-year high.
However, for the first six months, deforestation levels have risen by 17%, without roughly 3,610 acres being cleared - an area roughly four times the size of New York City.
Brazil's dry season usually starts in June and runs through until October. There have been concerns over a particularly bad set of droughts that could provide the perfect conditions for the same types of forest fires that ripped through the world's largest rainforest last year.
Deforestation has surged since Jair Bolsonaro took office as the country's president. His slow response to the 2020 wildfires was also met with condemnation from the international community.
Bolsonaro has also looked to increase mining and agriculture in protected areas of the Amazon and weakened a number of Brazil's top climate initiatives.
He has been accused of both denying deforestation is an issue, as well as of being ignorant of the scientific consensus on climate change.
Read more: Multinationals & Governments team up to end deforestation
The Brazilian president deployed the military to protect parts of the rainforest from deforestation and banned the use of many outdoor fires. There is currently little evidence to suggest these tactics have worked.
Environmental scientists consider the protection of the Amazon as essential in the fight against climate change. Often referred to as "the lungs of the world," the forest is responsible for absorbing a large amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Complete destruction of the Amazon would turn the land into a large prairie with Savanna-like conditions and release tens of billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
The weather would also become highly unstable in the region, with particular attention to rain patterns, which could disrupt agriculture for much of South America as well as driving the extinction of the vast number of animal species that call the forest their home.
The Woodwell Climate Research Center claims that 5,000 acres of deforested rainforest have yet to be burned.
It claims these areas could act as hotspots for new wildfire activity, owing to the extremely dry conditions of the past few months.
Read more: Brazilian farmers' lobbies divided over EU's Amazon deforestation complaints
According to the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project, some 430,000 acres of the Amazon have been burned or logged this year alone.
The majority of this is to clear the way for cattle farming or soybean production.
Back to Homepage
Back to Politics & Economics