Amazon forest carbon emissions skyrocketed under Bolsonaro, study shows
Deforestation in the world's largest rainforest hit a 12-year annual high in 2020, with 2.7 million acres destroyed and with carbon emissions reaching 0.52 billion metric tonnes.
Smoke from a fire rises into the air as trees burn amongst vegetation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas state in early August. (Leonardo Benassatto/Reuters)
Brazilian space research centre INPE has reported that carbon emissions in the Amazon forest soared in 2019 and 2020 compared to the previous decade due to poor enforcement of environmental protection policies.
The forest's carbon emissions amounted to 0.44 billion metric tonnes in 2019 and 0.52 billion metric tonnes in 2020, compared to an annual average of 0.24 billion metric tonnes from 2010-2018, according to the INPE study published in Nature magazine.
The study attributed the rise in a large part to an increase in deforestation, researcher and leader of the study Luciana Gatti said.
Deforestation in the world's largest rainforest hit a 12-year annual high in 2020, with 11,088 square kilometers (2.7 million acres) destroyed.
Since taking office in January, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised to end deforestation by 2030 and to erase the policies of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who served as president from 2019 to 2022 and slashed environmental protection efforts.
The research also showed the number of fines imposed by enforcement agencies for illegal deforestation in the Amazon fell by half in 2020 compared to the levels recorded between 2010 and 2018.
The study relied on carbon dioxide samples collected by hundreds of research flights over the region between 2010 and 2020.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell in July to its lowest monthly level since 2017.
INPE data showed 500 square km (123,000 acres) of rainforest were cleared in the month, a 66 percent drop from the same period a year ago.
In Brazil, deforestation has so far wiped out around one-fifth of the rainforest, driven mainly by cattle ranching.
Brazil's agribusiness sector was closely allied with Bolsonaro, and is a powerful player in the country, the world's top exporter of beef and soybeans.
However, the forces driving the Amazon's destruction go far beyond Brazil, Gatti said.
"The world wants cheap beef, cheap soy for animal feed, so we're destroying the forest to raise cattle and soybeans," she added.
"That's the engine driving this."
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