Last month, satellite surveillance detected 218.4 square kilometers of forest cover being destroyed in some of the world’s largest rainforests in Brazil.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rose 150% year-on-year in December, according to government figures, according to far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s final report in his last month in office.
Satellite surveillance detected 218.4 square kilometers (84.3 square miles) of forest cover being destroyed in some of the world’s largest rainforests in Brazil last month, according to the national space agency’s DETER monitoring program.
According to INPE, the area has increased by more than 150% from the 87.2 square kilometers (33.7 sq miles) demolished in December 2021.
Bolsonaro, who was replaced by President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on January 1, said during his four-year tenure that there was a sharp increase in fires in the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change. The deforestation sparked international protests.
Under agribusiness ally Bolsonaro, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75.5% from the previous decade.
“Bolsonaro’s regime may be over, but his tragic environmental legacy will still be felt for a long time,” Marcio Astorini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement. Stated.
It was the third worst December on record for the DETER program eight years ago, following 2017 and 2015.
Deforestation in 2022 was at or near record highs, even during the critical dry seasons of August, September and October.
Experts say the destruction is largely caused by farms and land grabbers clearing forests for cattle and crops. Lula, who presided over the sharp decline in deforestation from 2003 until 2010 when he led Brazil, relaunched Brazil’s environmental protection program and fought for zero deforestation, helping the South American giant to fight climate change. I promised to stop being an “outside” because of the problem.
