Fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased in July

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The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 8% in July compared to the same month last year – reveal official data released this Monday (1st).

Last month, satellites from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) detected 5,373 fires in this region, against 4,977 in July 2021.

This number is slightly higher than 2019 (5,318) and lower than 2020 (6,803), for a fire-prone month due to the onset of the dry season.

Since the beginning of the year, 12,906 fires have been detected, which represents an increase of 13% compared to the first seven months of 2021.

“This is just the beginning of the Amazonian summer, a season with less rainfall and humidity, where unfortunately the practice of wildfires and criminal forest fires explode,” said Greenpeace Brazil Amazon spokesperson Rômulo Batista.

At this time, there are fires “in areas that have been recently cleared and left to dry, or even burning areas of forests that have already been degraded by illegal logging,” he added.

Batista said that, in addition to destroying biodiversity, the smoke from the fires also affects the health of the local population.

The most devastating months of forest fires in the Amazon are usually August and September.
Greenpeace published aerial photos of massive forest fires last week during a flight over the Amazon state of Rondônia.

Brazil recorded record deforestation in the first half of the year, with almost 4,000 kmtwo burned. This was the highest record since the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter) began tracking damage in 2016.

The number represents an increase of 10.6% compared to the same period in 2021.
President Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election in the October presidential election, is often criticized for his environmental policies.

Official data shows that since taking office in January 2019, average annual deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.

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