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Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Deforestation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest increased 66% in 2021 compared to the previous year, an NGO reported Wednesday, warning that this coastal biome faces “high” risk.
Between November 2020 and October 2021, the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest lost 21,642 hectares, an area equivalent to more than 20,000 soccer fields, according to a study carried out since 1989 by the SOS Mata Atlántica Foundation with satellite images from the National Institute for Space Research ( INPE).
This represents an increase of 66% compared to the previous reference period (November 2019-October 2020) and the emission of 10.3 million tons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere, according to the NGO.
And an advance of 90% with respect to the deforestation registered between 2017 and 2018, 11,399 hectares, the lowest value in the historical series.
During Bolsonaro’s mandate, deforestation increased by more than 75%
“We did not expect such an intense increase, we thought that the Atlantic Forest would be a little more immune to the explosion of deforestation that other biomes in Brazil are experiencing, as it is a region with greater controls,” Luis Guedes Pinto, director of Knowledge of SOS Mata Atlântica.
“This shows that the biome is also suffering from the dismantling of environmental policy and legislation,” added Guedes Pinto.
Under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 75% from a decade earlier, according to official figures.
Less known than the Amazon rainforest, the Atlantic Rainforest (Mata Atlántica in Portuguese) extends for more than 100,000 km2 along the oceanic coast and conserves only 12% of its original vegetation due to the urbanization process, according to data from SOS Atlantic Forest.
“The increase in deforestation (…) keeps this biome in a high degree of threat and risk,” the NGO points out in its report.
The causes behind deforestation
Farming, agriculture and real estate speculation around large cities can be pointed out as causes of logging, according to Guedes Pinto.
If deforestation continues, “there will be a lack of water, food and electricity,” since the vegetation protects the headwaters of important rivers and various ecosystems necessary for the production of food such as coffee, oranges or soybeans, warned Guedes Pinto, quoted in a statement. .
The increase was registered in 15 of the 17 Brazilian states in which the biome is present, reversing trajectories of “some years” in states such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, “which were close to ending deforestation.”
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