Over the past year, the Amazon forest area has decreased by 5,100 square miles maximum over the past 15 years. This is reported by The New York Times.
According to a report by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), from August 2020 to July 2021, the world's largest rainforest lost 5,100 square miles (13,200 square kilometers). kilometers) of tree cover. In addition, since Jair Bolsonaro became President of Brazil in 2019, the country has lost more forest area than Belgium.
Earlier at the UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow, the Brazilian delegation joined more than 100 countries, pledging end deforestation. The country has said it will reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 15 percent by next year. However, experts now doubt that Brazil will be able to achieve such indicators.
Brazilian Environment Minister Joaquim Leite noted that he was not aware of these figures at the time of his participation in COP26. In turn, an INPE spokesman said the report was ready and published back in mid-October on an online platform available to government officials. According to former Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira, this episode clearly demonstrates the incompetence of the current administration.
In September 2021, the British conservation organization Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) presented a report in which it stated, that from a third to half of the tree species on the planet are on the verge of extinction from the face of the planet.