Record deforestation in the Amazon contradicts Brazil’s speech at COP26

The record of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in October, released this Friday, has cast doubt on the conciliatory speech of the Government of Jair Bolsonaro at the Climate Conference in Glasgow.

The Brazilian Amazon, the largest rainforest on the planet, lost 877 square kilometers of vegetation cover in October, the largest area devastated for this period since 2016, when the measurement began.

Last month, the deforestation of the jungle grew 5% compared to October 2020, when the previous mark for the period was registered, with the loss of 836 square kilometers of native vegetation in the Brazilian biome.

In total, there are already almost 8,000 kilometers of forest devastated in the first ten months of the year, almost the same extension registered for this period in 2020.

The unfortunate record is known the same day that world leaders carry out the final negotiations of an agreement at COP26 that seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.

According to environmental defense organizations, the figures released today contradict Brazil’s discourse at COP26, where the Government has stated that deforestation rates have been falling due to the intensification of control and surveillance actions to stop the devastation of the forest.

At the climate summit, the Bolsonaro government also announced that it will eliminate illegal deforestation by 2028 and that it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% until 2030.

“Emissions occur on the forest floor, not in the Glasgow plenaries“Said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network that brings together more than 70 environmental organizations.

According to this NGO, the government of the far-right leader has presented at the summit a country concerned about the climate crisis, when in reality what it has done is “dar aval”For land grabbers, loggers and illegal miners to destroy the jungle.

Greenpeace spoke in the same vein, indicating that Brazil’s announcements in Glasgow do not change the reality of the jungle, where fires are still out of control and violence against indigenous peoples increases every day.

“As the federal government tries to sell Brazil as a green power at COP26, deforestation in October broke another record and has been driven by the anti-environmental policy of the president and the Ministry of the Environment, with the support of the national Congress.”Said Rómulo Batista, spokesman for Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign.

They grow due to deforestation

Since Bolsonaro came to power on January 1, 2019, deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have skyrocketed to levels not seen twelve years ago.

In 2019, 10,100 square kilometers of native vegetation were cut down in the ecosystem, the figure rose to 10,900 square kilometers in 2020 and everything indicates that this year the devastated area in the Brazilian jungle will be located at the same level.

The president defends the exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, including in indigenous reserves, and has relaxed the control of activities that directly attack the environment, such as mining and the timber trade, mostly practiced illegally in that region. .

According to the latest report from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation System (SEEG) of the Climate Observatory, released at the end of October, emissions grew 9.5% last year in Brazil, driven by the effects of deforestation in the Amazon. and reached their highest level in the last 14 years.

In 2020, the net emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) of the South American giant were 2,160 million tons, compared to 1,970 million in 2019.