In September alone, around 1,455 square kilometers of rainforest were cut down in the Brazilian Amazon region. This is according to preliminary figures from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) on Friday. According to the Brazilian news portal “G1”, the value means an increase of almost 50 percent compared to September last year, it is the highest value for September since 2015. The INPE evaluates satellite images and thus draws conclusions about the changes in the forest.
There was a similarly high September value in 2019 – in Jair Bolsonaro’s first year as Brazilian President. He came under international criticism, among other things, because of devastating fires in the Amazon region. “After all, Bolsonaro was the president who is still proud to this day of having abolished environmental monitoring,” the climate think tank Observatório do Clima said in a statement.
Because of the importance of the Amazon region for the climate, the presidential election in Brazil also plays a role for the rest of the world. Incumbent Bolsonaro sees the economic potential in the area and wants to open up more land for agriculture and mining. His opponent, left-wing ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the other hand, has promised to strengthen environmental and climate protection in the future. Lula narrowly won the first round, and there will be a runoff on October 30th.
