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The government agency recorded 17,326 hot spots in the rainforest in October, more than double the number of fires last year.
Fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest increased in October and the number of fires increased by 25 percent in the first 10 months of 2020, compared to a year ago, data from the government space research agency INPE showed.
The agency recorded 17,326 hot spots in the world’s largest rainforest in October, more than double the number of fires detected in the same month last year. Forest destruction has skyrocketed since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.
The president said he wanted to develop the region out of poverty, while environmental advocates said his policies emboldened illegal loggers, miners and ranchers.
Fire in a ranch in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world, in Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
The number of fires so far this year has remained at a decade. In just the first 10 months of the year, 2020 has surpassed the total number of fires for all of 2019, as the destruction sparked international criticism that Brazil was not doing enough to protect the forest.
Advocacy group WWF-Brazil blamed the government for not stopping those who cut down the forest.
“With the increase in the rate of deforestation in recent years, the government has ignored the researchers’ warnings: deforestation and forest fires go hand in hand,” said WWF-Brazil science manager Mariana Napolitano in a statement.
“After cutting down the forest, the criminals set fire to clean up the accumulated organic material.”
Smoke from a fire rises into the air in the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, in Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
Fires in Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, also increased in October compared to a year ago, according to INPE. The Pantanal, home to many rare species, including the world’s densest jaguar population, has seen the most fires this year since records began in 1998.
In the year to October 25, 28 percent of the wetland burned, according to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, an area almost the size of Denmark.
But Napolitano said that with the arrival of the rainy season in the Amazon and the Pantanal, there were signs that the rate of destruction was slowing.
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