The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has reached its highest level in 11 years, according to new satellite data.
The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has reached its highest level in 11 years, according to new satellite data. About 3,769 square miles of rainforest were lost between August 2018 and July 2019, the result of agricultural land clearing, wildfires, mining, and logging, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
The numbers represent a nearly 30 percent increase in deforestation over the previous 12-month period, CNN reported. It is equal to losing about two football fields of forest per minute, according to The Guardian, the fastest since 2008.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been a staunch supporter of agribusiness, mining, and timber development in the Amazon since taking office in January. Enforcement actions against industry operating in the Amazon have dropped by 20 percent under his administration, the New York Times reported, and Bolsonaro fired the head of the INPE in August for expressing concern about the rise in deforestation. Countries like Norway have suspended international donations to Brazil to protest the administration’s pro-industry policies in the rainforest.
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Image: Forest fires burn part of the Amazon in Candeiras do Jamari, Rondonia, Brazil in August 2019. VICTOR MORIYAMA / GREENPEACE
