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AFP
The fires spread across the Amazon in 2019, as shown in the image, causing a worldwide protest
Fires in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest increased by almost 20% in June, a maximum of 13 years in the month, according to government data.
With such an increase at the start of the dry season, there is concern that this year’s fires may overcome the disastrous fires of 2019.
Activists say the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem.
They believe the arson is likely to be even less monitored as authorities stretch.
Many forest fires in the country are deliberately started by illegal loggers and farmers who want to quickly clear the ground.
Brazil has the second highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the world, after the US, and there is also concern that increased smoke could have a detrimental effect on the breathing of virus patients.
In June, the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 2,248 fires using satellite imagery, as opposed to 1,880 fires in June 2019.
Burning generally increases during July, August and September.
“We cannot allow the 2019 situation to repeat itself,” Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of the NGO World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, accusing the government of inaction.
Last year’s fires peaked in August at 30,901, triple the same period the year before.
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The 2019 fires sparked protests nationally and internationally, with threats of financial sanctions from foreign governments and broad condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.
The President has been criticized for cutting funds from the Ministry of the Environment and encouraging businesses to conserve.
The BBC’s analysis in 2019 showed that a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations during his administration had coincided with the increase in fires.
However, the President has consistently rejected criticism from abroad. “Certain countries, instead of helping … behaved disrespectfully and with a colonial spirit,” he said in September, rejecting the “misconception” that the Amazon is the lung of the world.
The Amazon, which covers several countries in South America but has 60% in Brazil, is a vital carbon reserve that reduces the rate of global warming.
- The coronavirus ‘could destroy the indigenous peoples of Brazil’
It is home to approximately three million species of plants and animals, as well as around one million indigenous people.
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NELSON ALMEIDA
The Brazilian army has been called to conduct coronavirus tests in the Amazon, amid fear that indigenous populations may be decimated.
Last year, the BBC reported that an area of the Amazon jungle roughly the size of a soccer field is now lost every minute, according to satellite data.
Scientists say it could be close to the “tipping point” when its nature completely changes.
This will happen when total deforestation reaches between 20% and 25%, which could occur in the next 20 or 30 years.
