Brazil last month recorded the highest number of wildfires in the Amazon for a month of May since 2004, and an all-time high for the Cerrado savannah region, according to official data released Wednesday (June 1).
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Satellites from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) detected 2,287 fires in the Amazon in May, almost twice as many as in the same period last year.
This is the second most devastating month of May in history for the Amazon rainforest, after the record dating from 2004, with 3,131 fires.
As for the Cerrado, an area of savannah rich in biodiversity located in the south of the Amazon, no less than 3,578 outbreaks were identified last month, unheard of for this time of year since the INPE began. compiling this data in 1998.
Bolsonaro singled out
Environmentalists point out that Brazil has been facing an upsurge in forest fires and deforestation since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in January 2019. “
These figures (for the month of May) are not an exception, they are part of a trend of environmental destruction in the last three years, which is the result of a deliberate government policy
", deplores Mauricio Voivodic, director of the Brazilian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF ).
The Bolsonaro government "
ignores science, and Brazil will pay a heavy price in the future
", he insists.
According to experts, most of these fires are arson, consisting of agricultural burning on illegally deforested areas.
May is not usually the month with the most forest fires.
The peak occurs rather in August and September, at the heart of the dry season.
The already very high figures from May therefore point to a particularly devastating 2022.
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President Bolsonaro, who is in favor of allowing mining and agricultural activities in protected areas - including indigenous territories - is the target of much criticism from the international community for his environmental policy.
Since the beginning of his mandate, the average annual deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has increased by more than 75% compared to the previous decade.
The vast Atlantic Forest (“
Mata atlantica
”), a tropical biome also located in Brazil, suffered a 66% increase in deforestation last year, according to the SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation.