World

Deforestation in Amazon hits 15-year high

BRASILIA – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose 22% in a year to its highest level since 2006, the government’s annual report showed on Thursday, undercutting President Jair’s reassurances. Bolsonaro that the country is restricting illegal logging.

Brazil’s space research agency, INPE, recorded 13,235 square kilometers of deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest in their PRODES satellite data, an area nearly 17 times the size of New York City. Official data on deforestation covers the period from August 2020 to July 2021.

The increased destruction comes despite Bolsonaro’s efforts to show his government is serious about protecting the Amazon, seen as a vital bulwark against catastrophic climate change. The former far-right army captain still calls for more mining and commercial farming in protected parts of the rainforest.

At the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month, COP26, the Brazilian government made a pledge to end illegal deforestation within two years to 2028, a goal that calls for reductions. strong every year.

The INPE report, October 27, shows an increase in deforestation in each of the four most recent cycles – the first for the data series since at least 2000.

“Look out for the date on the INPE note. The government went to COP26 knowing the data on deforestation and hid it,” the Brazilian advocacy group, the Climate Observatory, wrote on Twitter.

In the run-up to the summit, the Brazilian government touted preliminary monthly data showing a slight decline over the annual period as proof that deforestation was under control. Instead, the final, more refined data presented a dire picture.

Environment Minister Joaquim Pereira Leite said at a news conference on Thursday: “The numbers are still a challenge for us and we have to get even stronger on these crimes.”

He told reporters that the data did not reflect the recent increase in enforcement against illegal deforestation, while acknowledging the government must be more aggressive in fighting deforestation.

Mauricio Voivodic, head of environmental group WWF in Brazil, said the numbers show “the real Brazil that the Bolsonaro government tries to hide with imaginary speeches and clean-up efforts abroad.”

“What the reality is,” he said, “is that the Bolsonaro government hastened the devastation of the Amazon.”

(Reporting by Jake Spring and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Bill Berkrot)

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