Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Up 22 Percent in Year

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest increased by nearly 22 percent between August 2020 and July 2021 compared to the same period the year before, the national space research institute INPE said Thursday.

As a result, deforestation reached the highest level in fifteen years. The INPE estimates, based on space research that some 13,235 square kilometres of the forest were lost in the Amazon between 2020 and 2021. That was the largest strip since 14,286 square kilometres were cleared between 2005 and 2006.

At the UN climate summit in Glasgow this month, COP26, the Brazilian government pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2028, a target that requires aggressive annual reductions in tree felling. In the run-up to the summit, the Brazilian government had suggested that it would gradually bring deforestation in the Amazon under control.

“These figures prove that deforestation is still a challenge for us and that we need to take stronger action against illegal logging,” Environment Minister Joaquim Pereira Leite said on Thursday.

Mauricio Voivodic, head of the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, said the numbers reveal “the real Brazil that President Jair Bolsonaro’s government is trying to hide with imaginary actions and attempts at greenwashing abroad.” he said, “is that the Bolsonaro government has accelerated the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.”