An outbreak of wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon got global attention in August. But as the Brazilian government begins to gain control over the flames with the aid of its military, the rampant deforestation that caused the fires has been largely unaddressed, environmental news agency Mongabay reports.
Amid the wildfires, which Brazil's armed forces brought under control in October, a satellite monitoring system run by the National Institute of Space Research found that deforestation increased 222% in August compared with August 2018, and by 96% in September compared with September 2018.
The dramatic increase in deforestation in August and September were not an anomaly this year, however. In the first nine months of 2019, 2,970 square miles of rainforest was felled, an 85% increase compared with the first nine months of 2018, according to the Mongabay. Deforestation began to spike in Brazil’s Amazon following the election of President Jair Bolsonaro earlier this year, according to the report.
“Typically, the speculators cut valuable trees, burn the remainder, and sell the clear land at a heavily marked up price to cattle ranchers or agribusiness,” the report states. “So far, Bolsonaro has done little to inhibit these activities, while doing and saying much to encourage deforestation, mining and agribusiness.”
The full report can be found here.
