Deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon jumps 22% in annual gov’t report

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Rondonia State, Brazil September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

BRASILIA — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest soared 22% in a year to the highest level since 2006, the government’s annual report showed on Thursday, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging.

Brazil’s space research agency INPE recorded 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) of deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest in its PRODES satellite data during the official annual period from August 2020 through July 2021.

The increase comes despite Bolsonaro’s efforts to show his government is taking environmental preservation seriously, while still calling for more mining and commercial farming in protected parts of the Amazon.

The surging destruction comes after the government brought forward its pledges to end illegal deforestation by two years to 2028, a target that would require aggressive annual reductions in the destruction.