Deforestation of the Amazon: 4,340 soccer fields are cut down in the rainforest every day – News

• Deforestation of the rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon continues to grow strongly.
• Between August 2019 and July 2020, 11,088 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared in the region, said Inpe, the space agency responsible for monitoring the rainforest.
• Compared to the same period last year, deforestation increased by 9.5 percent.

This means that around 4,340 soccer fields or three soccer fields are cleaned every day per minute. The deforested area was the largest since 2008.

Because the Amazon rainforest can contain immense amounts of CO2, it is also of great importance to the global climate. However, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sees untapped economic potential in the region and wants to open up even more land for agriculture, mining and power generation. It rejects international criticism of its environmental policy as interference in internal affairs.

Bolsonaro’s politics: “hindsight”

“The Bolsonaro government’s development vision for the Amazon region takes us back in time, with deforestation rates that have not been achieved since 2008,” said Cristiane Mazzetti of the environmental organization Greenpeace. “It is a hindsight that does not appeal to the majority of Brazilians and does not do justice to the efforts needed to deal with the climate crisis.”