BRASÍLIA — Deforestation in the
Brazilian Amazon fell in May from the same month last
year, but came in at the second-highest level on record for the period,
continuing a devastating year for the world’s biggest rainforest.
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Figures based on
satellite data published Friday by the national space agency, INPE, showed a
total of 900sq.km. of forest cover in the Brazilian Amazon was destroyed last
month — equivalent to more than 126,000 football fields.
The figure was
down 35 percent from May 2021, but was still the second-worst since records
began in August 2015.
And
deforestation so far this year is up 12.7 percent from the same period last
year.
Experts say the
destruction is mainly driven by farming and ranching in Brazil, the world’s top
producer of soy and beef.
President Jair
Bolsonaro, an ally of
Brazil’s powerful agribusiness lobby, has presided over a
surge in destruction in the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate
change, since taking office in 2019.
Under the
far-right president, who is up for reelection in October, average annual
deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has risen by 75 percent from the previous
decade.
At the Summit of
the Americas in Los Angeles this week, Bolsonaro said his country could expand
agribusiness without harming the Amazon, and complained to
US President Joe Biden about international pressure over the issue.
“We have a
wealth in the heart of Brazil — our Amazon, which is bigger than Western
Europe, with incalculable riches, biodiversity, mineral wealth, drinking water
and oxygen sources,” Bolsonaro said, as he met Biden on the sidelines of the
summit.
“Sometimes we
feel that our sovereignty is threatened in that area but Brazil preserves its
territory well,” he said.
“On the
environmental issue we have our difficulties but we do our best to defend our
interests.”
Experts say
otherwise.
“Despite all the
alerts from the scientific community, Brazil continues flying in the face of
sustainable development,” Mariana Napolitano, science director at the World
Wildlife Fund Brazil, told AFP.
“These
deforestation records make it clear an environmentally just and balanced future is more
remote every day and make it clear how ineffective current environmental
policies are.”
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