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With about 421,335,900 hectares in Brazil, the Amazon is under threat of deforestation and land grabbing.
Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil drew international attention with its work to reverse the advance of deforestation. During this period, the accumulated reduction in deforestation reached 80%. However, since then the news has not been so good.
View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com(Image: BBC)
Between August 2018 and July 2019, deforestation increased by about 30%, equivalent to almost 9,800 km2 (to get a sense: that's practically the size of Lebanon). The worst average since 2008. And that's still not the worst case scenario.
In August 2019 the INPE In response, the Brazilian government claimed that the high number of fires was due to the dry season in the area, however, both IPAM and the Federal University of Acre contradicted the statement and declared that the fires were related to intentional burning in the areas.
What is the intention of the burning?
In first place we have livestock. A good part of these burnings occur in order to plant pasture, not by chance, the largest amounts of cattle are concentrated in the states with the largest forested areas. About 80% of deforestation is linked to livestock, either directly or indirectly. Because it is a poor soil, this type of activity requires that increasingly the area ofdeforestation has to increase.
A good part of the Amazon has no defined legal use, so some people burn several kilometers of forest and occupy it with cattle, which is a relatively cheap way of occupying the area. Then they illegally obtain a land title so they can sell it, and in some cases they give the land away to a buyerwell-meaning people who have no concept of illegality.
For the time being, the Brazilian government has not presented any real measure that could reduce deforestation and/or make illegal logging unviable. Considering Brazil's posture at this moment, we will continue to have an Amazon under threat of deforestation and illegal logging.
