Friday November 12th 2021
Brazil breaks promises
Rainforest deforestation continues
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important carbon stores on earth. Nevertheless, illegal deforestation of the forest areas continues – despite all the assurances of the Brazilian government. The consequences are more than worrying.
Contrary to the promises made by Brazil’s government, which has come under international pressure, for the UN climate conference COP26, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon remains at a record level. In October alone, 870 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared, according to preliminary data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which evaluates satellite data. This is an increase of five percent compared to October 2020 (836 square kilometers) and the highest value for the month since 2016.
Brazil, where there has been a lack of water and drought in large parts of the past few months, is assigned a key role in climate protection. The proportion of the South American country in the Amazon region, which is considered to be an important reservoir for the climate-damaging greenhouse gas CO2, corresponds to the size of Western Europe in terms of area. The right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro sees the Amazon region primarily as untapped economic potential.
The Brazilian government announced in Glasgow that it would end illegal logging of the Amazon rainforest by 2028. Bolsonaro named 2030 as a target at US President Joe Biden’s climate summit in April. “The data is a reminder that Brazil roaming the corridors and rooms of COP26 in Glasgow is the same where land robbers, illegal loggers and gold diggers have a government license to destroy the forest,” it said in a statement of the climate think tank “Observatório do Clima”.