Brazil deforested 10,000 square km of Amazon rainforest in 2019

[Judi Lynn]

The 34 percent increase is worse than previously reported in 2019, involving an area about the size of Lebanon.

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An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil [File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]


Deforestation of Brazil's Amazon rainforest was worse than previously reported in 2019, revised government data showed on Tuesday, during the first year of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is eager to develop the forest crucial to curbing global warming.

Brazil's space research agency INPE recorded 10,129 square km (3,911 square miles) of deforestation for its benchmark annual period from August 2018 to July 2019. That is an area about the size of Lebanon and a 34.4 percent rise from the same period a year earlier.

Environmental advocates and scientific researchers blame the policies of right-wing Bolsonaro for emboldening illegal loggers, ranchers and land speculators to clear the forest.

Bolsonaro has urged the development of the Amazon, including protected areas, as a way to lift the region's poor residents out of poverty.

Brazil is home to roughly 60 percent of the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest. Protection of the Amazon is vital to curbing climate change, scientists say, because of the vast amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/brazil-deforested-10000-square-km-amazon-rainforest-2019-200610143250834.html