Deforestation in the Amazon between 2000 and 2018 reached 513,016 km2, an area as large as Spain, amputating the largest tropical forest in the world by 8%, according to a report published Tuesday, December 8.
Read also: Brazil: deforestation is on the rise in the Amazon
"
The Amazon is much more threatened than eight years ago,
" denounces this document from the Amazonian Network for Geographic Socio-Environmental Information (Raisg), a collective of researchers and NGOs which published a similar study in 2012. The report , entitled "
Amazonia under pressure
", points to "
the progress of mining activities, infrastructure projects, as well as the upsurge in forest fires
".
The Amazon spans nine countries (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana), with around 47 million inhabitants, including many indigenous communities.
Over the period studied, 2003 remains the worst year in terms of deforestation, with 49,240 km2 deforested.
Deforestation had subsequently declined, reaching a low point in 2010 (17,674 km2), before accelerating again from 2012. Then the deforested area “
tripled from 2015 to 2018, reaching 31,269 km2 in the year alone. 2018
”, underlines the report.
Brazil concentrates 62% of the Amazon rainforest, but more than 85% of deforestation has taken place on its territory, with 425,051 km2 deforested from 2000 to 2018. The situation has only worsened since the election in 2019 of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, in favor of opening up protected areas and indigenous territories to mining and agriculture.
The satellites of the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE) counted 11,088 km2 of forest destroyed from August 2018 to July 2019, the worst figure for 12 years and an increase of 9.5% compared to the previous twelve months.
It is also in Brazil that 53.8% of the 4472 pockets of illegal mining, especially gold panning, listed by the Raisg in the Amazon are found.
But Venezuela concentrates 32% of this total, while only 5.6% of the Amazon rainforest is found in its territory.
Regarding forest fires, it is in Bolivia that they have done the most damage proportionally, with 27% of the Amazonian territory of this country ravaged by flames in the period 2000-2018.
"
Since 2001, 169,000 km2 of the entire Amazon rainforest have been burned per year on average, including 26,000 km2 in protected areas or indigenous territories
," says the report.
The document points out that "
at least 13% of the total forest area has burned at least once since 2001
", with some areas managing to regenerate after the fires.
"
These data show that it would be important for the Amazonian countries to work together to combat the advance (of deforestation) at the level of the region
", explains Julia Jacomini, researcher of the Socioenvironmental Institute, Brazilian NGO member of Raisg .
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