After a period of relative respite, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon recorded a +43 per cent in April compared to the same month in 2020.
In the first four months of 2021, 1,157 square kilometres of the Brazilian Amazon were destroyed, an area equivalent to the surface of Los Angeles. This represents 4 per cent less than the previous year. However, after three months characterised by a lower rate of deforestation than in 2020, the figures for April are causing some concern, with a +43 per cent compared to the same month of the previous year. This is what emerges from the preliminary data released by Inpe, the national space research agency that also monitors the conditions of the Planet's green lungs via satellite.
These figures diverge from those released by Imazon. According to the independent research institute, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been rising for eight consecutive months and by the end of March was 33 per cent above 2020 levels. These discrepancies can be explained by the adoption of different calculation methods, explains Mongabay.
The fact remains that the curve is rising again just as the dry season, which runs from May to October, draws closer. This is a particularly critical period because the absence of rain encourages the spread of fires that devour thousands of hectares of vegetation every year. In 2020, for example, in June alone a greater area of forest was destroyed than in the first four months of the year combined.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro also took part in the global summit organised by the United States for Earth Day 2021. On the occasion, he made a striking promise: to eliminate unauthorised deforestation by 2030, which would be enough to halve the entire country's emissions. At the same time, he called for financial support from the administration of Joe Biden. The situation is therefore becoming delicate at a political level too. "If deforestation starts to rise again, if we see fires in the Amazon again between August and September of this year, it will be harder for the US to continue negotiations with Brazil," Anya Prusa, a researcher at the Wilson center in Washington, pointed out to Reuters.