Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Accelerating; Rate Of Destruction Up 50% Jan-Mar Compared To 2019
An historic assault is being waged on the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people who have called it home for thousands of years as the world’s population takes shelter from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 50% in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same three-month period last year, according to preliminary satellite data released by the Brazilian Space Agency’s deforestation monitoring system.
Even before the pandemic struck, scientists warned that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s development-friendly policies could transform the world’s largest rainforest into a drier, savannah-like landscape. Once this “tipping point” is crossed, scientists said, the ecosystem could begin emitting more greenhouse gases than it captures, effectively turning a vital tool in the fight against climate change into another source of harmful emissions.
Brazil’s indigenous reserves hold some of the most pristine sections of the rainforest in the world and have long been targeted by illegal logging and mining operations seeking to exploit their natural resources. Since the outbreak started, however, Brazil’s environmental agency has scaled back more enforcement measures, leaving the forest and its indigenous tribes even more vulnerable to a litany of deadly threats.
“Our territory keeps being invaded by loggers and hunters,” Laercio Guajajara, a member of the Guajajara tribe in the state of Maranhao, told ABC News. Even in the midst of the global health crisis, he said, there were “still a lot of invasions.”
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https://abcnews.go.com/International/deforestation-amazon-rainforest-accelerates-amid-covid-19-pandemic/story?id=70526188