Deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s biggest tropical rainforest, has reached record highs all year. The month of November saw an increase of more than double the destruction compared to the same month last year.
According to preliminary government data published, the destruction of Brazil’s Amazon, in particular, has leaped to its highest level ever for November since the record-keeping agency began monitoring in 2015. A total of 563 square kilometers of destruction took place that month, according to INPE, the country’s space research agency.
November and December are the Amazon region’s rainy season, and usually, deforestation is at a minimum during this time. Therefore, not only is the number dangerously high overall, but it is also unusually high for the season.
Calculating the total deforestation from January up through November comes to 8,934 square km – an area roughly the size of Puerto Rico! Also, it’s a dramatic 83% more than in the same period in 2018.
Environmentalists and researchers are pointing the finger at right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro. They believe it to be his fault for emboldening loggers and ranchers by proposing for the Amazon to be developed and for weakening Ibama, the environmental agency.
The president, as well as the country’s environmental minister, Ricardo Salles, argues that previous governments have a part in the increase of deforestation. The policies and Ibama’s budget cuts were in place long before the new government took office on January 1, 2019.
Official deforestation data comes from a system called PRODES. The data released by the space research agency is not considered official deforestation data. It was collected through a scheme that publishes alerts on fires and other types of developments affecting the rainforest. PRODES numbers show a rise in deforestation of 30% since 2018, with a total of 9,762 square km destroyed.
