The deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon set a new record for February, when some 199 square kilometers of surface were devastated in the largest tropical forest in the world, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) announced on Friday.
According to data obtained by INPE, the figure accounts for “the greatest destruction for a month of February since the beginning of the surveys in August 2015, with an increase of 62% compared to the same period of the previous year.”
Environmentalists warned that the figure is even more worrying when considering that February is the rainy season in the Amazon, “typically a period of low deforestation”reported the AFP news agency.
Rómulo Batista, a member of Greenpeace, said that “the first two months of this year set deforestation records in the historical series: 629 square kilometers so far, more than triple last year.”
“This absurd increase demonstrates the results of the lack of policies to combat deforestation and environmental crimes in the Amazon promoted by the current government. The destruction does not stop”Romulo Batista, member of Greenpeace
These values increased fears that this year the destruction of the Amazon will worsen compared to last year, when deforestation reached a maximum in 15 years, of 13,235 square kilometers from August 2020 to July 2021, according to the INPE monitoring program. , Prodes, which has records since 1988.
“This absurd increase demonstrates the results of the lack of policies to combat deforestation and environmental crimes in the Amazon promoted by the current government. The destruction does not stop,” Batista said.
The Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, who pushed to open protected lands to agribusiness and miningprovoked international protests due to the increase in deforestation and fires in the Amazon.
Since the president took office in 2019, Brazil’s average annual deforestation in the Amazon has increased by more than 75% over the previous decade.
The destruction is mainly due to agribusiness and speculation on these rich lands in Brazil, the world’s leading exporter of beef and soybeans.
