The charred remains of burned forest in Maranhão state, close to an indigenous community. Photo © Survival
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon showed a 290% rise in September compared to the same month last year. According to figures released by Brazilian NGO Imazon, 402km2 were cleared last month, compared to 103km2 during the September 2013.
The worst affected areas were the states of Rondonia, which accounted for 33% of the total, Pará (23%), Mato Grosso (18%), and Amazonas (12%).
In addition to the areas cleared, a further 624km2 were “degraded” during September 2014, showing a slight rise (3.8%) on last year’s figures.
The figures published by Imazon are independent figures – the government has postponed the release of official figures until after Sunday’s presidential run-off, in which incumbent Dilma Rousseff faces a strong challenge from Aécio Neves, a pro-business candidate who has the endorsement of Marina Silva, the popular former environment minister who herself came third in the first round of elections on 5th October.
However, the official numbers are expected to confirm the Imazon’s statistics, entrenching a reversal that started last year, when deforestation rose by 29% after eight years of progress in tackling the clearing.
Among the reasons for the setback are a shift in government priorities. Under Rousseff, the government has put a lower priority on the environment and built alliances with powerful agribusiness groups. It has weakened the Forest Code and pushed ahead with dam construction in the Amazon.
The environment ministry has tried to step up monitoring operations and campaigns to catch major violators, but farmers and loggers have also become more sophisticated by clearing small areas of fewer than 25 hectares, which are harder to detect on the government’s satellite.
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