Brazil says Amazon deforestation is worst since 2008
Source: Associated Press
Brazil says Amazon deforestation is worst since 2008
By DIANE JEANTET
November 18, 2019
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is at its worst in more than a decade, a government report said Monday, undermining officials’ claims that concerns by environmentalists have been overblown.
Deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019 reached 9,762 square kilometers (3,769 square miles), a 30% increase over the previous year, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research said.
The area of deforestation is the largest recorded since 2008 and is about the size of the U.S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
Concern about the Amazon heightened after President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January. His administration has advocated the loosening of protections around natural reserves and indigenous lands as a way to promote economic development.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/6c625c60de0f4f868e684fc2f031ccbf