Brazilian Amazon deforestation up 150% in Bolsonaro’s last month

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose 150 percent in December from the previous year, according to government figures, presenting a final bleak report for far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro in his last month in office, Qazet.az reports.

Satellite monitoring detected 218.4 square kilometres (84.3 square miles) of forest cover destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggest rainforest last month, according to the national space agency’s DETER surveillance programme.

The area was up more than 150 percent from the 87.2 square kilometres (33.7 square miles) destroyed in December 2021, according to the agency, INPE.

Bolsonaro, who was replaced on January 1 by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, triggered an international outcry during his four years in office for a surge of fires and clear-cutting in the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.

Under Bolsonaro, an agribusiness ally, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose by 75.5 percent from the previous decade.

“Bolsonaro’s government may be over, but his tragic environmental legacy will still be felt for a long time,” Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.