Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon jumped 222% in August | Chronic

The Brazilian Amazon lost 1,698 square kilometers of vegetation cover in August, an area 222% higher than deforestation in 2018 (526 square kilometers), according to data published by the National Institute for Space Research (4). INPE).

The figures indicate that, although the devastation has been reduced compared to July this year, the destruction of the plant cover of the world's largest rainforest continues to grow compared to last year.

In July of this year, the area of ​​forest destroyed in the Amazon was 2,254.8 square kilometers, with 278% growth compared to the loss of the same month last year (596.6 square kilometers).

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The sharp increase in deforestation in July and August of this year resulted in an increase of 6,404.8 km 2 in the area of ​​Amazonia destroyed in the first eight months of the year, an area 92% higher to that slaughtered between January and August of last year (3,336.7 square kilometers).

The data comes from Deter, a methodology based on satellite images and used by the INPE to provide early warnings on deforested areas in the Amazon but which, as the agency recognizes, do not constitute official data on the deforestation of the major sites considered. Vegetable lung of the world.

However, the data collected indicate a trend and serve to alert the prosecutors of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment (Ibama) to the threatened places where they must concentrate their activities.

The revelation that the increase in deforestation continued in August comes at a time when Brazil is the target of criticism from environmentalists and world leaders for the sharp rise in forest fires. forest in the Amazon until now this year. .

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Environmentalists attribute this growth to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's anti-environmental rhetoric, which included reducing environmental control in the region and regulating mining on Indigenous reserves.

Faced with the accelerating devastation, the German and Norwegian governments suspended their contributions to the international Amazon Fund, which Brazil uses to finance sustainable development projects in the region.

Contrary to the criticism, Jair Bolsonaro It damaged INPE data, sent its director back in July, demanded changes in methods of measuring deforestation and accused agency officials of being at the service of the groups defense of the environment.