In Brazil, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest broke records

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil broke a new record in the first half of 2022, with June being the worst month since 2007 in terms of forest fires, according to official data released on Friday.

Since the beginning of the year, the largest tropical forest on the planet has shrunk by 3,750 square kilometers, an unprecedented area since public data on the phenomenon began to be collected by the Deter observation satellite of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in 2016.

The previous record for deforestation in the first six months, which was set just last year at 3,605 square kilometers, was already broken in the first six days of June.

Records were broken on a monthly basis in January and February, during the wet season, when forest destruction is usually much lower, and then again in April.

As for the fires in the Amazon rainforest, INPE satellites detected 2,562 hotspots last month, the highest number in the last 15 years (3,519 in June 2007), an increase of 11% compared to last year.

In total, 7,533 fires have been recorded since the beginning of 2022, an increase of 17% compared to the first half of 2021 and the worst since 2010.

«The dry season has not yet begun in the Amazon, and already records for environmental destruction are being broken,» said Christiane Mazetti, spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil, in a press release.

«In recent years, we have witnessed environmental destruction (...). The negligence of the authorities will have an increasingly greater impact on the resilience of ecosystems and will cause great damage to local communities,» emphasized Mariana Napolitano of the WWF's Brazilian branch.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who openly supports granting permits for mining and agricultural exploitation of protected areas, has been widely criticized by the international community for his environmental policies.

Environmentalists accuse him mainly of favoring impunity for gold miners, farmers, and timber smugglers who engage in illegal logging, and of cutting the budget of environmental protection agencies.

Last year, IBAMA, Brazil's main public agency for environmental protection, spent only 41% of its budget dedicated to surveillance and inspections, according to the Climate Observatory, a collective founded by NGOs.