The Brazilian Amazon suffered in May the highest number of fires for that month since 2004, while the Cerrado region had a record in the same period, according to official data released by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).
Fueling fears about the future of the world’s largest rainforest, official satellite records showed a total of 2,287 Amazon fires in May, a 96% increase from the same month in 2021.
It is the second highest number for a month of May after reaching 3,131 in 2004.
In the cerrado, a tropical savanna region that comprises great biodiversity south of the Amazon, there were 3,578 fires, according to INPE, a 35% increase compared to May 2021.
It is the highest number for a month of May since records began in June 1998.
Environmentalists called the numbers further evidence of an increase in fires and deforestation during President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) term.
“These numbers are not an outlier, but the result of a steady upward trend in environmental destruction over the last three years that results from intentional government policy,” said WWF Brazil Executive Director Mauricio Voivodic.
“Science is being ignored and the future will exact a high price from Brazil,” he added.
Experts point out that the fires in the Amazon, the lung of the world and fundamental in the fight against climate change, are almost all caused intentionally to use the land for activities such as agriculture and livestock.
May generally has fewer fires than August and September, months that see the height of the dry season. The high numbers in this period have raised fears that 2022 could be a particularly destructive year.
Bolsonaro, who is closely allied with the country’s powerful agro-industrial sector, has faced international criticism for a sharp increase in deforestation in the Amazon and other ecosystems under his tenure.
Since taking office in 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75% from the previous decade, according to official data.
There is also alarm over the Atlantic Forest area on Brazil’s east coast, where deforestation has increased by 66% last year, according to a report last week by environmental group SOS Mata Atlântica.
