6 | New Scientist | 27 July 2019BEFORE July is even over, satellite
images suggest this will be a
landmark month for destruction
of Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest.
More than 1250 square kilometres
were lost between 1 and 22 July,
figures from Brazil’s National
Institute for Space Research (INPE)
reveal – more than double the area
cleared in the whole of the same
month last year (see graph, below).
The world’s greatest rainforest
is home to around 400 indigenous
groups and a rich diversity of
species. It is also a vital store of
carbon. Increasing deforestation
of the Amazon makes it much
more difficult for us to reduce
our global carbon emissions,
says Mark Maslin at University
College London.
This deforestation has
accelerated since Jair Bolsonaro
became Brazil’s president in
January. So far this year, more than
3700 square kilometres appear to
have been lost – an area about a
fifth the size of Wales.
The law hasn’t changed: Brazil’s
decades-old forest code means
landowners should be fined if
more than a fifth of their land
is deforested. But Bolsonaro has
said that the rainforest should
be exploited “in a reasonableway” and has sought to reduce the
size of scores of protected areas.
The change in government
rhetoric is driving landowners and
entrepreneurs to deforest because
of a lower threat of government
intervention, says Maslin.
The satellite data used to assess
this year’s damage is intended for
agencies so they can quickly detect
and act on deforestation. The way
it is collected isn’t designed to
tell us about annual trends, butexperts say it already looks likely
that the full year’s data will show
a big increase when released in a
few months. Last week, Bolsonaro
said the data “lies”.
“What we are observing is
shocking but not a surprise,”
says Carlos Rittl of the Climate
Observatory, a São Paulo-based
group of non-governmental
organisations.
Through a freedom of
information request to Brazil’s
environment agency, he has
discovered that the number
of government enforcement
operations in the Amazon region
was down 70 per cent between
January and April compared
with the same period last year.
“What we can tell is that
people are feeling more enabled
by the government,” says Erika
Berenguer at the University of
Oxford, who met landowners
during a recent visit to Brazil.
Individual cases of
deforestation have also been
detected by satellite monitoring
beyond Brazil’s own schemes. The
Global Land Analysis & Discoverylab at the University of Maryland
had 75 per cent more real-time
deforestation alerts in June than
last year. “We’re definitely seeing
a lot more alerts,” says Mikaela
Weisse of the US-based non-profit
World Resources Institute, which
works with the lab.
The big driver is to clear land for
beef production, rather than the
value of the timber or to make
space to grow oil palms or soya
beans, says Berenguer. Typically,
gangs use a chain slung between
two tractors to knock down trees
at an industrial scale. Once dry
enough, the felled trees are burned
to clear the ground for ranching.
It isn’t possible using satellite
data alone to say that the clearance
is definitely for ranching, but
Weisse says the straight shapes
and the size of the areas follow
the same trend as land cleared
for cattle pastures in the past.
Based on the preliminary data,
it is thought that the full year’s
data, which will cover August
2018 to July 2019, could show an
annual rise in deforestation of as
much as 10 per cent. This would
be relatively small compared with
the early noughties, when tens of
thousands of square kilometres
were being deforested annually.
But it would mark a significant
departure from the past decade of
relatively low, stable deforestation.
Fred Arruda, Brazil’s ambassador
to the UK, noted that deforestation
fell by 72 per cent between 2004
and 2018. “The historical trend
is undeniably still quite positive.
Nonetheless, we acknowledge
the challenges ahead of us,” he
says. “We have been working to
make sure our historical trend
remains on track.” ❚News
DeforestationOT
ONBARR
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BT/INPE)Land grab in the Amazon
Deforestation has rocketed in Brazil since Jair Bolsonaro became
president in January, reports Adam VaughanIn this satellite image,
recently exposed soil is
orange and cattle ranches
are light green15129630D
eforested^
area(hundredkm2 )July
2017July
2016July
20181 to 22
July 2019Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest
accelerated rapidly this July compared with
the same month in the past three yearsSOUR
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