Amazon deforestation soars to 15-year high – “This is not surprising. The result of pulling apart Brazil’s environmental policy is deforestation.”

By Manuela Andreoni
19 November 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO (The New York Times) – Brazil’s pledge this month to end illegal deforestation in eight years drew much praise from global leaders, but an official report this week cast doubt on that commitment after it showed that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest was at its worst in 15 years.

At the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Brazil, intent on reversing its reputation as an environmental offender under President Jair Bolsonaro, joined over 100 countries in promising to end deforestation. Under the plan, Brazil said it would reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 15 percent by next year.

But the report released on Thursday by Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research, or Inpe, showed that the world’s largest rainforest had lost an astounding 5,100 square miles of tree cover from August 2020 to July 2021.

Satellite data indicated that deforestation increased by about 22 percent from the previous year. It was also the first time on record that the country has reported a fourth consecutive year of rising deforestation rates. Since Mr. Bolsonaro became president in 2019, the country has lost a forest area bigger than Belgium.

“This is not surprising,” said Daniel Azeredo, a federal prosecutor who specializes in environmental crime. “The result of pulling apart Brazil’s environmental policy is deforestation.”

Adding to questions over whether Brazil would meet those targets, the report was dated Oct. 27, four days before the climate summit, known as COP26, started, suggesting that the right-wing government had the information beforehand. But at a news conference late Thursday, Joaquim Leite, the minister of the environment, denied having any knowledge of the numbers during the climate summit, where he led Brazil’s delegation.

“Maybe it was out of caution that Inpe delayed publishing this data,” he told reporters. “The information I have is that it was published today, and that this number is unacceptable.” […]

Mr. Bolsonaro took office vowing to develop the Amazon region rather than protect it, which critics believe has severely damaged the country’s ability to attract investments and negotiate favorable economic deals on the international stage.

With Mr. Bolsonaro running for a second term in an election set for next year, his policies undermining environmental protection agencies and encouraging miners and ranchers to occupy the Amazon are bound to come in sharp focus. A sharp economic crisis has pushed unemployment rates up and crushed his approval ratings in recent months. [more]

Amazon Deforestation Soars to 15-Year High

Deforestation in the Amazon grows 33% from January to October compared to last year

17 November 2021 (Imazon) – The Amazon lost 803 km² of forest in October alone, an area almost four times larger than Recife. As a result, accumulated deforestation from January to October reached 9,742 km², the worst rate in 10 years. Only compared to the same period last year, when the devastation had already hit the highest mark since 2012, the accumulated deforestation this year grew 33%.

The data are from the Deforestation Alert System (SAD) of the Institute of Man and environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors the forest through satellite images.

“Considering that Brazil reaffirmed its commitment to zero deforestation at COP26 [the UN Climate Change Conference, held in recent weeks in Glasgow, Scotland], the area deforested in October is worrying because it shows that we continue with very high levels of forest loss, which we report month by month. We are in a scenario still far from achieving the goals that have been established,” warns Antônio Fonseca, a researcher at Imazon.

In the comparison of deforestation detected in October of the last 10 years, the area destroyed in 2021 was the second worst, second only to that recorded in 2020. In October last year, 890 km² of forest were devastated, 10% more than in the same period this year. To change this scenario of negative deforestation records, according to Fonseca, it is necessary to adopt measures that reduce impunity in the countryside.

“As long as there are invasions of public forests by grileiros, in order to obtain legalized ownership of these areas, deforestation unfortunately tends to continue at these levels”, says the researcher.

According to him, it is necessary that these forests that do not yet have a defined use be converted to protected areas, such as indigenous lands, quilombola territories and conservation units. In addition, inspections need to be intensified, especially in critical areas.

Pará presents new geography of deforestation

At the top of the ranking of the states that most deforested in the Amazon six consecutive months ago, Pará accounted for 56% of the destruction in the region in October. The devastated area in the state was 450 km², almost half the territory of Belém. In addition, seven of the 10 municipalities that destroyed the forest the most are on Para soil. And among these municipalities, three are concentrated along the Trans-Amazonian highway, which shows a new location of deforestation in the state.

“It is not a region that has been reported in recent months as a critical area. Generally, in Pará, deforestation had been occurring on the border with Mato Grosso, in municipalities such as São Félix do Xingu and Novo Progresso,”fonseca explains.

Destruction of the forest grew 39% in the Amazon

In the Amazon, the second state that most deforested the Amazon in October, the destroyed area grew 39% compared to the same month of 2020, from 76 km² to 106 km². The state had been drawing attention to the growing deforestation at least since April, when it topped the ranking of those who most devastate the forest. In October, as in previous months, municipalities in the south of the state such as Lábrea and Apuí appeared in the ranking of those that most deforested in the Amazon.

“The October data contributes to consolidating this region as a new frontier of deforestation. We need effective and rapid actions so that this destruction does not continue to expand, especially over protected areas,” he adds. [Translation by Bing]

Deforestation in the Amazon grows 33% from January to October compared to last year