Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Deforestation of land in the Amazon increases by 85 per cent in one year

  • In 2020, the forest is at risk of being more severe than the damage sustained in 2019. Compared to the rate two years ago, the process of deforestation in the Basque Country grew by 85% last year. The administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is considered by several organizations to be the main suspect.

31 August 2020 - 11:59
Sutea oihanean. Argazkia: Wikimedia Commons

The first year that Bolsonaro agreed to the presidency of the Republic was a disaster for the Amazon, the quintessential green lung of the planet. The Real Time Deforestation Detection System of the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE) published in early 2020 that the area of "deforestation observations" reached 9,166 square kilometers and in 2018, 4,946 square kilometers, an increase of 85%. The past decade was the time when forests have been destroyed the most. Forecasts suggest that 2020 could be worse if current fires keep pace.

According to El Salto, only in the first ten days of August were detected 10,136 fires throughout the Brazilian Amazon, 17% more than in the same time of the previous year, and the highest figure, according to the evolution of the last decade.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which reported the situation on 26 August, published a report denouncing that this year’s fires may be even worse. Despite the binding nature of the National Climate Change Policy, the Brazilian Government committed to reducing the annual global deforestation rate to 3,925 square kilometres, but the new areas destroyed in April were 4,509 square kilometres. In addition, compared to the previous month, more fires were recorded, 28% more than in the same month of the previous year.

Effect Bolsonaro

Both the scientific community and the environmental movement have underlined Bolsonaro's influence in the disaster area. The exploitation plans of the Amazon have removed competences and resources from public administrations, such as the Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources of Brazil (IBAMA), linked to the Ministry of the Environment and responsible for developing the National Environmental Policy.

Rapaz

The journal Global Rural warned that on August 7, 2019, three days before “Fire Day”, massive fires began in the region of Novo Pogresso. In the state of Pará, a group of 70 people coordinated via whatsapp to set fire to the margins of the BR-163, which caused minor damage. Within this group were landowners, rural producers, traders and trade unionists. Although this information was disclosed to the Ministry of the Environment, no action was taken. It seems that this year has also been the same problem. Researchers and the environment have denounced that the 120-day moratorium in the area to ban fires and monitor the military has been "an ineffective measure", according to HRW. "Forest fires in the Amazon rainforest do not occur naturally," the NGO said in a statement. "After deforestation, there are fires intentional to clean up land and promote agricultural, livestock and real estate speculation, often illegally. There are more fires in August or September."

Production account

According to the Brazilian study The rotting apples of agribusiness, published in July in Science magazine, about 20% of soy exports and 17% of South American beef exports come from areas with illegal deforestation activity in the Amazon. Researchers accused Bolsonaro of boosting deforestation "in contravention of the Brazilian Forestry Code and the soybean moratorium agreement," which violates the norm prohibiting logging forests for grain production.


You are interested in the channel: Basoen suntsiketa
They call on the Basque Government to comply with European law and restore degraded natural areas.
According to a regulation adopted by the European Union in August, 20% of degraded areas by 2030 should be returned to their previous state. That is why different actors have created the Basque Government document, restoring nature now, which has been publicly presented this... [+]

2024-04-09 | ARGIA
Azpeitia and Berango call for the felling of 11,000 trees in an act against “industrial planting”
The Earth Uprising movement has realized the action taken in the “previous weeks”. The movement has denounced that the industrial model of arboreal planting is an important factor in the ecosocial crisis, as it is based on the exploitation of nature and workers and damages... [+]

2023-01-04 | ARGIA
The UN estimates that every year as many forests are destroyed as the size of Iceland
According to a report prepared by the programme of the United Nations Association for the Conservation and Environment, 10 million hectares of forests are destroyed each year in the world, the size of Portugal or Iceland. The organization warns that deforestation accounts for 25... [+]

2022-06-15 | Naturkon
The Council of Gipuzkoa leaves the forests with the money of all.

On 9 June, the Deputy General of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Markel Olano, and the Deputy for Economic Promotion, Tourism and the Rural Environment, Jabier Larrañaga, appeared in Donostia to present the Basotik Foundation. The director general of Montes y Medio Natural,... [+]


2021-04-23 | Aiaraldea
Mario Corral, 'Peru':
"The problem is not just eucalyptus, we have to totally transform the forest exploitation model."
Mario Corral, Peru (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1968) is a member of the Uhandre Bosque Vivo de Amurrio platform, along with other neighbors and neighbors of the Alavesa locality. They are concerned about the massive expansion of eucalyptus.

2021-03-17 | Naturkon
The lie of the abandoned forests

Would anyone say that the Amazon rainforest is an abandoned forest? Or that the protected areas of Costa Rica and Borneo are abandoned? Have we declared natural parks because Pagoeta and Aiako Harria are abandoned forests? In all these areas is the natural forest or the natural... [+]


2020-10-21 | Erran .eus
This summer 736 hectares have been burned in Navarre and firefighters have participated in the extinction of 501 fires
This summer, compared to data from the last 5 years, is the second in number of interventions. In 2016, 580 fires were extinguished in Navarre, in 2017 439, in 2018 357 and in 2019 461.

2020-07-30 | Mikel Eizagirre
3,000 million animals killed and affected by fires in Australia
Scientists say it has been "one of the greatest disasters" that have occurred in modern history against wildlife.

Amazon deforestation is growing by 50% due to lack of control by the coronavirus
Brazil is the South American country that has suffered the most from the coronavirus epidemic, with 1,328 deaths and 23,430 infections. The virus has affected not only the health of the population, but also nature, as deforestation in the Amazon has grown by 50% over the same... [+]

2020-02-26 | ARGIA
Australia fires destroy 20 per cent of the country ' s forests
Fires that started in Australia at the end of 2019 are under control, even though some remain active. Other topics are at the top of the news. The fires, however, have been large and will be noticed over the years.

Trees remember from war.
On 12 November 1944 the British bombed and sank the German Tirpitz in the Norwegian fjords, as seen in the photo.

Borneo is burned and it takes a journalist to explain the ugly truth.
The journalist André Vltch, who has known the ARGIA reader at the LARRUN (Ecology of War) supplement in November, rolls on the island of Borneo the documentary that will be the chronicle of one of the world’s largest destroys. The Western multinationals have destroyed the... [+]

Eguneraketa berriak daude