Deforestation in the Amazon between August 2018 and July 2019 grew 34% compared to the previous period. It surpassed the devastated 10,000 km² mark, according to the consolidated data from Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite (Prodes), from National Institute for Space Research (INPE), released on Tuesday (9).
At the end of last year, INPE had already made public the partial data on deforestation in the biome. The information now published is the consolidated and definitive information for the period in question.
The increase in deforestation observed is the second-largest percentage increase ever recorded in the biome, second only to 1995.
Besides, the 10,129 km² destroyed are the record of the decade. In 2008, the country had in the Amazon deforestation numbers near that level, but there was a downward trend. Now, however, the data points to a growth trend in deforestation.
The explosion of deforestation in the Amazon coincides temporarily with the electoral period of 2018 and the first six months of the Jair Bolsonaro government (without a party). Even during the presidential dispute, Bolsonaro, then a candidate, criticized Ibama's inspection and said that the country had an excess of conservation units and indigenous lands.
Experts and environmental organizations warned that this kind of speech could encourage environmental crimes.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon