Deforestation in the Amazon is increasing sharply

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Fire on the Amazon (photo from August 2021): Sad record for clearing

Photo: Sandro Pereira / imago images / Fotoarena

Brazil has promised to better protect the rainforest in the future.

But deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continues to rise sharply, according to a message from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).

The deforested area in the region totaled 13,235 square kilometers between August 2020 and July 2021, according to satellite data.

The affected area is more than fifty times the size of the city of Frankfurt am Main.

The institute recorded an increase of 22 percent compared to the previous period from August 2019 to July 2020. This is the largest deforested area since 2008. Inpe's preliminary data had already indicated an increase in destruction.

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, which has come under international pressure, announced at the UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow that it would end the illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by 2028.

President Bolsonaro named 2030 as a target at the US President Joe Biden's climate summit in April.

However, the now published announcement is dated October 27, that is, a few days before COP26.

The Brazilian government tried to polish up its image, even though it knew that another record had been broken in deforestation, according to a statement from the environmental organization Greenpeace.

The European Union put forward a proposal on Wednesday to restrict the import of goods whose production had destroyed forests, which could affect Brazil, among others.

The Brazilian Agricultural Producers' Association issued a notice "to express its outrage at the proposal."

mic / dpa-afx