The Amazon experienced in the first half of 2022 the greatest destruction of its forest in 15 years. From January to June, 4,789 km² were felled, almost 20% more than in the same period last year —when the region had already had an explosion in deforestation. This area is twice the territory of Palmas, the ninth largest Brazilian capital.

The data were released on Monday (18) by the Deforestation Alert System (SAD) of the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors the forest by satellite images since 2008. In June alone, 1,429 km² were knocked down, an area similar to the territory of the city of São Paulo.

Compared to the same month last year, when 926 km² were destroyed, devastation grew by 54% in 2022. With this, the Amazon also had the worst June in 15 years.

"This new record of deforestation in the Amazon poses a greater threat to the lives of traditional peoples and communities, such as indigenous peoples, quilombolas and riparians, leaving them hostage to crimes and violence. In addition, the felling of the forest also contributes to the worsening of climate change, which is related to the higher frequency and intensity of extreme phenomena such as droughts and heavy rains," warns Larissa Amorim, a researcher at Imazon.

Brazil has already suffered from deaths and damage caused by heavy rains, as occurred more recently in Pernambuco. In addition, last year, crop declines in major agricultural commodities such as soybeans, corn and coffee because of drought severely affected the economy and contributed to rising inflation.

Amazon summer and elections contribute to uptrend

According to Imazon's assessment, the trend for the last six months of the year is that destruction will continue at an accelerated pace for three main reasons. The first is the continuity of the dry period in the region until October, the so-called "Amazonian summer", when the action of felling the forest becomes easier than in the months of the rainy season.

The second is the holding of elections, when historically federal, state or municipal inspections tend to decrease. And the third is the lack of signaling from the competent agencies that there will be tougher actions to combat deforestation in this second half, which indicates that the situation of impunity will continue to prevail in the Amazon.

"This acts as an incentive for illegal deforesters to continue operating in the region, mainly through the land grabbing process," adds Larissa.

Also on Monday (18), the Annual Report on Deforestation in Brazil (RAD), mapBiomas, shows that Brazil lost 16,557 km2 – or 1,655,782 hectares – of native vegetation cover in all its biomes last year: an increase of 20% compared to 2020. With the upward trend in desmate in the last three years, in this period Brazil lost the equivalent of almost a State of Rio de Janeiro of native vegetation.

Source: Um só Planeta