Amazon: two more studies confirm rising deforestation

Amazon: two more studies confirm rising deforestation

Environment · ·

Two new studies confirm that deforestation in the Amazon is on the rise: “12,000 square kilometres lost in a single year”.

Two new studies are fuelling concerns about the fate of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. As early as 8 May, the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) had indicated that in the first four months of 2020, 1,202 square kilometres of forest were razed to the ground — 55 per cent more than in the same period of 2019.

'Studies add to alarm over deforestation in Brazil' - products found on our shop shelves in Europe can be linked to #deforestation in Brazil and in other countries. We need a strong EU law to stop contributing to this! @EU_Commission
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Now the British newspaper The Guardian reports the findings of two further analyses: the first, produced by the coalition of non-governmental organisations MapBiomas, shows that the Latin American country lost more than 12,000 square kilometres of forest in the past year. The document also confirmed Inpe's findings on the basis of high-resolution imagery.

Deforestazione illegale nel territorio dei nativi brasiliani Pirititi
The Amazon is being razed to create farmland and dig mines © Felipe Werneck/Ibama/Flickr via AP

Greenpeace: "Government responsibility over the Amazon. The data don't lie"

The second study, produced by the association Sos Atlantic Forest, revealed a 27 per cent increase in the deforestation rate in eastern Brazil between October 2018 and October 2019, following two positive years during which the number of trees felled in the Amazon had instead declined.

"It is clear that the government's choices are weakening environmental policies and increasing deforestation," explained Mariana Mota of Greenpeace Brazil, adding that "the data don't lie."