The NGO Imazon reports that deforestation of the world's largest rainforest is steadily increasing. President Bolsonaro is also set to abolish the Ministry of the Environment.
After years of violence and abuse, it had seemed that, at last, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest was declining slightly for the first time in three years. But the planet's last great green lung barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before tree felling resumed at a frantic pace and deforestation began rising again. This is what emerged both from the report published by the Brazilian NGO Imazon, which monitors deforestation in the Amazon every month, and from data released by the Brazilian government.
Data obtained from satellite imagery revealed that in September 2018, 444 square kilometres of forest were legally razed to the ground, an increase of 84 per cent compared to September of the previous year. In August, as many as 545 square kilometres were cleared — almost three times the figure for 2017. Overall in 2018, we lost 4,859 square kilometres of the world's largest existing rainforest, recording the highest deforestation rate in ten years.
The Brazilian government's Amazon rainforest monitoring system, managed by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), also points to an increase in deforestation, albeit less pronounced than that reported by Imazon. The official deforestation data for 2017/2018 (the "deforestation year" ends on 31 August), based on the analysis of higher-resolution satellite readings than those used for monthly monitoring, will be published by the government at the end of November or the beginning of December.
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The increase in deforestation appears to be a consequence of current political and economic trends in Brazil. In recent times, following the trade war between the United States and China, exports of soya and beef from Brazil have risen, and their production is the primary cause of the destruction of the Amazon.
The recent election of Brazil's new president, the far-right former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, represents a further threat to the Amazon rainforest, to indigenous peoples, and to the extraordinary biodiversity it harbours. The incoming president has indeed announced, as promised during his election campaign, the merger of the Ministry of the Environment with the Ministry of Agriculture, scheduled for January. In doing so, it seems clear that environmental protection will take a back seat to agricultural production and the interests of the agro-industrial sector, with serious consequences for the entire planet, given the precious role the Amazon rainforest plays in absorbing vast quantities of CO2.