The Amazon completed another period of high destruction. From August 2021 to July 2022, 8,590.33 km² of the biome were demolished. The rate is the third highest in the recent history of Deter, a tool by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) that measures deforestation in practically real time. The new data is only behind 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, respectively the first and second years with the highest deforestation, according to Deter.
The new deforestation rate was released this Friday morning (12) by Inpe.
The new numbers further consolidate the very high levels of deforestation achieved during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government.
Deter does not have the function of accurately measuring deforestation. For this, Inpe has Prodes, a system with greater precision that publishes deforestation data —always computed from August of one year to July of the following year— in the last months of the year. Even so, from Deter, whose primary objective is to assist operations to combat deforestation, it is possible to see if there are trends of decline, maintenance or increase in destruction, as the months go by.
And the Amazonian months, since the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, were marked by records of forest clearing.
With the exception of the month of December, Deter’s deforestation records for all other months occurred under Bolsonaro. In other words, his administration has almost a whole year of deforestation records.
Only in the most recent cycle (August/21 to July/22) there were five months with the highest numbers of destruction ever seen for those months: October (876.56 km²), January (430.44 km²), February (198, 67 km²), April (1,026.35 km²) and June (1,120.2 km²).
It is worth mentioning, however, that Deter’s recent history begins in August 2015. The previous system had lower resolution and was eventually replaced.
Taking into account Deter data, more than 31,000 km² of Amazonia have been cut down since the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, in 2019. This is equivalent to approximately more than 720 km² of forest falling to the ground monthly, which represents more than 450 Ibirapuera parks destroyed every month.
The value is considerably higher than what was seen in previous presidential terms. From August 2015 (beginning of the new Deter) until the removal of President Dilma Rousseff (PT) due to the opening of the impeachment process, in May 2016 (nine months), about 364 km² of Amazonia were demolished per month.
In the 32 months of Michel Temer’s (MDB) government, already taking into account the months of Dilma’s absence, about 420 km² of Amazonia were deforested per month.
Deforestation in the Amazon had already been growing before 2019, but exploded after Bolsonaro entered the Planalto Palace. Even before assuming the presidency, still in the electoral period, Bolsonaro had already started a speech that condemned environmental inspection and cited an alleged “fine industry”, never proven by the president. When he was still a federal deputy, in 2012, Bolsonaro was fined for illegal fishing in Angra dos Reis (RJ). The civil servant who fined the then deputy was exonerated after Bolsonaro took office and the fine was considered prescribed.
Bolsonaro also came to disallow an operation to combat deforestation in progress. In the first year of government, as data from Deter indicated a surge in destruction, the president questioned the quality of Inpe’s work, stating that the institute’s then director, Ricardo Galvão (now a pre-candidate for federal deputy for the Sustainability Network), could to be “at the service of some NGO”. Galvão responded to the attack suffered and ended up leaving Inpe.
Along with deforestation, fires also grew. The two actions are linked: in general, they first cut down the forest, let it dry and then, in the dry season in the Amazon, burn the deforested area.
The flames and growing deforestation and inspections and fines in the opposite direction brought international attention to Brazil, which came to be strongly criticized by the current environmental management and saw its role in the area reduced.
In international eyes, deforestation becomes an important factor due to the growing concern about production lines contaminated with environmental crimes, which jeopardizes the Mercosur agreement with the European Union.
The world’s greatest affliction with the climate crisis also comes into play. In Brazil, deforestation is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, responsible for abnormal warming on the planet.
