RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of forest fires in Brazil’s Amazon increased sharply in September, figures released Thursday show, fueling growing criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. The National Institute of Space Research (INPE) said satellite imagery showed an increase of 61 percent in the number of fires in September, compared to the same period last year. Satellites used by the institute detected 32,017 outbreaks last month in the Amazon, compared […]
Tag: President Jair Bolsonaro
Environmental groups, big ag unite for Amazon in Brazil
BRASILÍA, Brazil (AFP) — An unprecedented coalition of 230 environmental groups and Brazilian agrobusiness companies have sent an open letter to President Jair Bolsonaro urging him to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition brings together a disparate group of members ranging from the World Wildlife Fund to the world’s biggest meat processing company, JBS, which has itself been accused of contributing to deforestation. The coalition sent Brazil’s far-right […]
New worry over August deforestation in Brazilian Amazon
RIO DE JANERIO, Brazil (AFP) — Last month was the second-worst August on record for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, according to official figures released Friday, sparking new criticism of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. A total of 1,359 square kilometers (525 square miles) in the Brazilian Amazon — 23 times the size of Manhattan — were lost last month, according to satellite data from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE). The figure triggered […]
Brazilian Amazon fires near level of 2019 crisis
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon last month was the second-highest in a decade for August, nearing the crisis levels that unleashed a flood of international condemnation last year, official figures showed Tuesday. Fires meanwhile tripled year-on-year in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, according to data based on satellite images from Brazil’s national space agency, causing alarm on a new front. Despite guarantees from President Jair […]
Fires ‘poisoning air’ in Amazon: study
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Rampant fires in the Amazon are “poisoning the air” of the world’s biggest rainforest, causing a sharp rise in respiratory emergencies in a region already hit hard by Covid-19, said a study published Wednesday. The fires that engulfed the Brazilian Amazon last year to global outcry caused an estimated 2,195 people in the region to be hospitalized for respiratory distress driven by inhaling smoke-polluted air, found the study by […]
Brazilian Amazon fires surge in July
by Joshua Howat Berger Agence France-Presse RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon last month rose 28 percent from July 2019, satellite data showed Saturday, fueling fears the world’s biggest rainforest will again be devastated by fires this year. Brazil’s national space agency, INPE, identified 6,803 fires in the Amazon region in July 2020, up from 5,318 the year before. The figure is all the more troubling […]
Amazon indigenous leaders accuse Brazil of ‘genocide’ policy
PIARACU, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s pledge to open up the Amazon to mining companies was tantamount to “genocide”, indigenous leaders said Friday at a meeting to oppose the government’s environmental policies. Hundreds of elders gathered this week at Pairacu, deep in the rain forest, to form a united front against Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, which have seen deforestation in the jungle nearly double since the Brazilian leader came to power a year ago. […]





