In June 2021, Brazil recorded the highest number of wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in the past 14 years. This was confirmed by satellite data from Inpe, Brazil's national space research agency, which recorded more than 2,300 fires: an increase of 2.7% compared to the same period a year earlier, when the all-time record had already been broken.

Furthermore, the data highlight how the ongoing extreme drought could fuel even worse fires in the months ahead: as Greenpeace Brasil explains, most fires typically break out at the height of the dry season, between August and September.

Wildfires out of control in Brazil

President Jair Bolsonaro banned people from lighting outdoor fires and deployed the military to protect the region from fires and deforestation. Fires in the Amazon are, for the most part, human-caused, while naturally occurring ones are extremely rare. Loggers illegally fell trees in the forest and then land grabbers set fire to the land to clear space for livestock.

On top of this, the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal region, the world's largest wetland, are experiencing a period of extremely low rainfall, which is making fires uncontrollable. According to Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy, hydroelectric plants across the country are recording water inflows at their lowest levels in 91 years.

Bolsonaro's broken promises

Inpe data show that deforestation increased by a further 25% in the first five months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. That amounts to 2,500 square kilometres of forest destroyed: an area three times larger than the city of New York.

At a summit organised on the occasion of Earth Day, Bolsonaro had pledged to double funding for environmental protection. Yet the very next day, Bolsonaro himself signed the 2021 federal budget, drastically cutting spending on environmental protection on the ground. And the Amazon is no exception.

Bolsonaro demonstrates once again that his proposals to protect the world's largest rainforest cannot be taken seriously. As Inpe's data show, the current president's policy choices do nothing but replicate the measures adopted in 2019 and 2020, which failed to reduce either fires or deforestation. Indeed, over the past four years, the former have steadily increased, while logging activities have reached their highest levels in 12 years.