Compared with last year, the number of deforestation warnings in the Brazilian Amazon has risen for the second consecutive month, ending an encouraging series of data at the moment when the government promised to curb illegal logging.
According to the daily alerts compiled by the Deter Monitoring System of the Brazilian Space Agency, the October alert is equivalent to 877 square kilometers (339 square miles), the highest indicator for the month in five years, and 4.9% higher than the same month in 2020. He was released on Friday. Compared with the same month last year, the number of alerts in September increased by 2.3%.
This data is considered to be a fully calculated leading indicator released from the more accurate system Prodes towards the end of the year.
In the photo: As the Amazon rainforest rages fire, protests at the Brazilian global embassy
The sharp decline in the previous two months has sparked the enthusiasm of government officials in President Jair Bolsonaro. Environmental groups warned at the time that it was too early to treat these data as trends.
The new data comes as the Brazilian government has been working hard to improve its reputation on environmental issues. During the UN climate negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, Environment Minister Joaquim Leite announced on Wednesday the goal of achieving zero illegal logging by 2028-boosting the climate led by Bolsonaro at the White House in April The 2030 target proposed at the summit.
“We are committed to preventing illegal deforestation in the Amazon,” Wright said on Wednesday. His department did not respond to requests for comment regarding the increase in deforestation warnings in October.
At the September UN meeting, Bolsonaro attributed the sharp drop in the alert the previous month to his government’s redoubled efforts. However, according to preliminary data, the accumulated deforestation warnings in 2021 are basically the same as last year.
Before Bolsonaro took office in 2019, the area of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon had never exceeded 10,000 square kilometers in more than 10 years. From 2009 to 2018, the average annual area was 6,500 square kilometers. During the first two years of Bolsonaro’s tenure, its average area was 10,500 square kilometers.
Bolsonaro called for development in the Amazon region and refuted global complaints about its destruction, believing that this was a conspiracy to prevent the development of agribusiness in the country, which aroused concern among environmentalists. His government also despised environmental authorities and supported legislative measures to relax land protection and encourage land looters.
“Data from Deter reminds people that Brazil circulating in the corridors and halls of COP26 in Glasgow is the same as land predators, illegal loggers, and miners who have government permits to destroy forests,” the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups The statement said.
© 2021 Canadian Press
