Brazil: Record fires in the Amazon for 15 years

The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon reached its highest level in nearly 15 years on Monday, official figures showed, another sign of the destruction caused in the world's largest rainforest.

Satellite images detected 3,358 fires on Monday August 22, the highest number in one day since September 2007, an official from the National Institute for Space Studies (INPE) confirmed to AFP on Thursday August 25.

This figure is three times higher than August 10, 2019, known as

, when Brazilian farmers launched a vast burning operation in the northeast of the country, which had spread to Sao Paulo, some 2,500 kilometers away, prompting international condemnation.

According to Alberto Setzer, head of INPE's fire monitoring program, there is no evidence that Monday's fires are coordinated.

Rather, they are part of a general pattern of increasing deforestation.

Read alsoIs the Amazon threatened with extinction?

Experts attribute the fires in the Amazon to the action of farmers, ranchers and speculators, who illegally clear land by burning trees.

, following a

, Alberto Setzer told AFP.

The fire season in the Amazon usually begins in August, with the onset of drought.

This year, as of July, the INPE detected 5,373 fires, 8% more than the same month in 2021. Since the beginning of the current month, 24,124 fires have been recorded, which should be the worst month of August since the beginning of the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, even if it is still far from August 2005 (63,764 hearths detected, a record since 1998).

Jair Bolsonaro is criticized for his support for the destruction of the Amazon, for the benefit of agriculture.

Since he came to power in January 2019, the average annual deforestation in Brazil's Amazon has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.

The far-right president tweeted on Thursday addressing those who criticize his policies:

.