The deforestation of the rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 22 percent in the past year. After 2006, not such a high percentage of rainforest has been cleared. Between August last year and July this year, a total of 13,235 square kilometers of the area was deforested. This is shown by research published Thursday night from the Brazilian space research institute INPE, which measured deforestation using satellite data. With an area of over 900,000 square kilometers, the Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world.
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Under the rule of Brazilian President Jaïr Bolsonaro, deforestation has increased for three years in a row. Critics have long pointed out that deforestation is a direct result of Bolsonaro’s political policies. The president countered that he would limit the felling of trees. At the UN climate conference in Glasgow, for example, he promised to stop illegal deforestation by 2028. The recently published figures will increase the pressure on Bolsonaro. A source told Reuters news agency that the president was already aware of the deforestation data during the summit, but obscured the data.
During the conference in Glasgow, journalists did inquire about the deforestation figures, but the Brazilian delegation invariably replied that the data was not yet complete. Despite rumors that the government already had the figures in hand, Brazilian environment minister Joaquim Pereira said he only saw the investigation for the first time on Thursday. One of the reasons for the decline in the Amazon’s size is that the Bolsonaro government allowed mining and commercial agriculture in the area.
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