It greatly intensified during the coronavirus health crisis. Deforestation accelerated by 25% in the Amazon forest in the first half of 2020, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) announced on Friday. It affected 3,069 km2, the highest figure since the compilation of these data.
The month of June, which marks the start of the dry season and the fires, also hit a record with 1,034 km2 deforested, an increase of nearly 11%. Figures feared by environmentalists, who have been sounding the alarm for several months.
According to them, the year 2020 is set to be the most devastating of all times for the Amazon rainforest, worse than 2019, when the resurgence of fires had shocked the whole world.
Investment funds push
Brazil is the target of constant criticism from many countries and environmentalists for the large-scale deforestation and fires that ravage the world's largest tropical forest each year during the dry season.
Environmentalists accuse the government of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, a notorious climatosceptic, of promoting deforestation by calling for legalizing agriculture or mining activities in protected areas.
Brazil's vice president Hamilton Mourao said on Thursday that representatives of international investment funds had conditioned their participation in environmental protection projects to "results" in the fight against deforestation.