Brazil: Deforestation Level in Amazon Forests Highest in a Decade

Between the months of August 2020 and July 2021, a 10,476 square kilometers of forests were destroyed.

forests
Image: Getty Images

The annual level at which deforestation is proceeding in the Amazon forests in Brazil has been exponentially increasing since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 to become the highest in a decade. On Friday, the Brazilian Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon), a research institute that has been reporting that has been monitoring Amazon deforestation since 2008.

Between the months of August 2020 and July 2021, a threatening large area of 10,476 square kilometers of forests was destroyed. The figure is 57% higher than in the previous year and is the worst since 2012.

“Deforestation is still out of control,” The Guardian quoted Carlos Souza, a researcher at Imazon who further added that “Brazil is going against the global climate agenda that is seeking to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to the latest report released earlier this month by the IPCC Working Group 1, scientists all over the world have been observing extreme changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system.

Read More: IPCC Report: Humans Causing Irreversible, Unprecedented Changes to the Climate

Given the changes to the climate for which the report says, humans are to be “unequivocally” blamed, the earth will experience more extreme weather in the coming years and it will suffer the consequences of rising sea levels and melting Arctic ice.

Given the findings and explanations of the report, the development in Amazon forests deforestation must be taken as a global threat to the existence of our planet.

In the face of severe protests by the local population and environment experts all around the world, the Brazilian President brought thousands of soldiers with the stated objective of prevention of deforestation and fires. However, the policy did not work because at the same time the administration allowed a free hand to corporates.

“We are going through a very tough moment in Brazilian history. There’s a lot of denialism, and many attempts to weaken our environmental policy,” The Guardian quoted senator Eliziane Gama.

Earlier, a Brazil-based Indigenous organisation moved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) asking for an investigation against Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro for “genocide” and “ecocide”, accusing him of persecuting native peoples and destroying their homelands.

In a case filed with the Hague-based court on Monday, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) alleged that the far-right Brazilian president has led “an explicit, systematic and intentional anti-Indigenous policy” since he came to power in 2019.

Also read: Bolsonaro Taken to ICC By Indigenous Groups Over Genocide and Ecocide in Brazil

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March 2024
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