Brazil: Amazon deforestation hits record high in April











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by Jake Spring

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a record high for the month of April, with nearly double the area destroyed compared to the same month in 2021, preliminary Brazilian government data showed on Friday.

During the first 29 days of April, deforestation in the region affected 1,012.5 square kilometers, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research Inpe, which will report data for the last day of the month next week.

The destruction of the Brazilian Amazon in the first four months of the year also reached a record, with 1,954 square kilometers affected, an increase of 69% compared to the same period in 2021 – which amounts to clearing a area more than twice the size of New York City.

Deforestation in the Amazon has skyrocketed since President Jair Bolsonaro, elected in 2019, backtracked on environmental protections, arguing that more agriculture and mining in the Amazon would reduce poverty in the region.

“The cause of this record has a first and last name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro,” Marcio Astrini, head of Brazilian advocacy group Observatório do Clima, said in a statement.

The Brazilian president’s administration and the environment ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Although deforestation is already on the rise, Observatório do Clima said its analysts were stunned by such a figure in April, during the rainy season, when the muddy forest is more difficult for loggers to access.

Ane Alencar, scientific director of the Institute for Environmental Research of the Amazon (IPAM), said he expected deforestation to continue to increase ahead of the presidential election in October.

(Jake Spring report; French version Elena Vardon, edited by Sophie Louet)










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