Deforestation in Brazil

Aerial view of an area of Amazon rainforest deforested by illegal fire in the municipality of Labrea, Amazonas State, Brazil, taken on Aug. 20, 2024.

Deforestation continued last year at a rate far beyond pledges to end the practice by 2030, according to a major study published Tuesday.

The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America, experts have said.

The world's biggest jungle, spanning nine countries, is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

An illegal dirt road ripping through protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon is now just a few miles shy of connecting two of the worst areas of deforestation in the region, according to satellite images and accounts from people familiar with the area.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose by almost 22 percent in one year, the highest level in 15 years, according to figures on Nov. 18 that cast doubt on promises by President Jair Bolsonaro's government to reverse the trend with "forceful" action.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged again over the past year, hitting a 12-year high, according to official figures released Monday that drew a chorus of condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

While the limelight continues to shine on the Covid-19 pandemic, deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest quietly continues to soar. The area of deforestation destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon in April 2020 was 64 percent higher than in April 2019, according to official government data from Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), which uses satellites to track deforestation.

The Brazilian tropical forest in the Amazon is suffering a record number of fires this year, according to new data from the National Space Agency.

The National Space Research Institute (INPE) says its satellite images show an 83% increase over the same period in 2018.

A non-government group that monitors the Amazon rainforest has said that the pace of deforestation has been increasing.

The destruction of Brazil's Amazon forest, the world's largest intact rainforest, increased by 16 percent in 2015 from a year ago, as the world readies to hold a climate conference in Paris. 

Satellite data for the 12 months through the end of July released on Nov. 26 showed that 5,831 square km of forests were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon, an area half the size of Puerto Rico. 

Deforestation in Brazil's storied Amazon basin region skyrocketed more than 450 percent in October from a year earlier, a non-governmental group warned Nov. 17.
      
The alarming loss was the equivalent of 24,000 football pitches, said Imazon, which works to support sustainable development in the massive and unique ecosystem.