The deforestation in the Amazon, located in Brazil, is said to have surged to a 12-year high. This is between August 2019 and July 2020, according to the National Institute for Space Research of INPE.
Deforestation in Brazil
Over a one year period, around 11,088 square kilometers or 6,890 square miles were destroyed. That is 9.5% more from the previous year-long period, and it is the highest level of destruction since 2008, according to INPE on November 30.
Deforestation has increased since President Jair Bolsonaro was elected in January 2019; he is known for his extremist ways. He has encouraged the development of the Amazon rainforest, and he has defunded the agencies responsible for preventing illegal logging, ranching, and mining in the Amazon.
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Aside from illegal logging, fires are also usually lit in the rainforest to clear vegetation from the parts that are already cut down. This is to prepare for illegal pasture planting and cattle raising, according to The Guardian.
Numerous environmentalists, both in Brazil and other countries, have criticized Bolsonaro for supporting the development in the Amazon.
In August 2020, Bolsonaro called the data and news reports about the first in the rainforest as a lie. He has faced pressure to take the necessary steps to preserve the Amazon.
In 2019, 34 international investors threatened to divest from Brazilian companies unless important steps were made to help curb the destruction and put out the fires that are raging in the region.
Bolsonaro's government has taken some steps to do so, banning fires and allocating military personnel to help control the blazes in the forest, according to BBC.
However, the new figures in the data are still alarming. Greenpeace, an environmental NGO, has documented the destruction and released pictures from a flyover of southern Amazonas and in Rondonia that was taken on August 16.
This includes the protected areas which can't be exploited for commercial purposes. The pictures showed flames and smoke, according to The New York Times.
The Amazon
The Amazon in Brazil is the world's largest rainforest, and it is the resource in the battle against global warming. Known as the "lungs of the Earth," when the rainforest is healthy and thriving, its trees and plants can pull billions of tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere every year. This makes it one of the world's best defenses against climate change.
The Amazon rainforest is not the only biodiversity hotspot that is fire this year. The worst wildfires have also hit the Pantanal region in South America in years.
The blazes have consumed around 28% of the vast floodplain that stretches across different parts of Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. The wetlands like the Pantanal are the most effective carbon sinks in Earth; it has ecosystems that absorb and store more carbon than they release.
Because of this, the ecosystem of the Pantanal can keep carbon away from the atmosphere. At around 200,000 square kilometers, the Pantanal has about 3% of the world's wetlands, and it plays a vital role in the carbon cycle.
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