The number of fire spots in Brazil fell 28% in the first two months of this year in relation to the same period in 2022, according to data from the Fire Monitor, of MapBiomas. 90% of the fires occurred in the Amazon, which represents 487,000 hectares. Roraima was the state that registered the most fires, accounting for 48% of the total, followed by Mato Grosso and Pará. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) registered more hot spots in the first quarter of this year in the Amazon than in 2022, but below the historical average.

More than one third of the Amazon Rainforest is already affected by drought, fires, logging and the” edge effects”, according to a study published in the scientific journal Science.

Authored by 35 Brazilian and foreign researchers, the study differentiates between deforestation and degradation. While, in the former, the forest undergoes major changes to make way for a new use – for example, an area that is burned to turn into pasture – degradation is differentiated by involving more changes in forest cover and by not having the objective of transforming the use of that land.

Degradation includes fires; drought (intensified by climate change); selective logging (legal or illegal; “selective” because some commercially interesting trees are removed, leaving others standing); and edge effects (changes in forests near deforested areas, thus a direct consequence of deforestation).

The study estimates that 38% of the Amazon Rainforest is now affected by some type of degradation. “The degraded area in the Amazon and the carbon emissions from degradation are equal or even greater than those from deforestation,” said study leader David Lapola, a researcher at the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture at Unicamp (State University of Campinas) and a doctorate from the University of Kassel, Germany, to BBC News Brazil.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (DETER/INPE) revealed that deforestation in the Amazon in November reached 555 km², an increase of 123% compared to the same month in 2021 and the second worst in the historical series, second only to 2020.  The devastated area is the size of the city of Belém, capital of Pará.

In the BR-319 highway vicinity, the municipality of Lábrea (AM) had the largest area with deforestation alerts, reaching 209 square kilometers. The highway had its construction resumed under the Bolsonaro administration and helped consolidate the south of Amazonas state as the new deforestation frontier.

The year 2022 has not ended, but the Amazon is already experiencing its most devastating calendar year in records. According to the DETER/INPE system, the accumulated deforestation alerts between January 1st and October 21st is 9,277 km2. With two months until the end of this year, the total area affected by deforestation in 2022 already exceeds the total of the worst year of records so far, 2019, when the alerts totaled 9,178 km2.

Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, says that deforestation in the Amazon is out of control and the scenario for the environmental crime “has never been so favorable.” “There is no action by the federal government to stop deforestation in the Amazon. Decreasing it is not a concern of the Bolsonaro government,” he explained.

In addition, the Amazon also set a new record for deforestation in September, with a high of almost 50% compared to the previous year.

A group of Brazilian researchers linked to INPE(National Institute for Space Research) has submitted a paper to the scientific journal Nature that claims carbon emissions doubled under Bolsonaro, specifically between 2019 and 2020, when compared to 2010 to 2018. The main reason for the emissions was human action driven by the dismantling of environmental enforcement and governance, says the study, which assessed the loss of the ability of the world’s largest tropical forest to act as a carbon sink and mitigate the effects of climate change.

According to the research, led by chemist Luciana Gatti, the effect was similar to the damage caused in 2010 and 2015/16 by El Niño, a climate phenomenon that makes the Amazon drier and more flammable. In 2019, the increase in emissions was of 89%. In 2020, 122%. More recent data show that deforestation records continued to be broken in 2021 and 2022, possibly worsening this scenario.

The Amazon registered the worst number of fires for the month of August in the last 12 years, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). There were 33,116 fires, the highest number since 2010, when 45,018 fires were recorded. This is the 4th consecutive year of Bolsonaro’s admistration that the volume of fires in the period is above the 28,000 mark.

On Amazon Day, celebrated September 5, the smoke caused by the fires spread over the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, Mato Grosso and Pará, covering an extension of 5 million km², reported INPE.

From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, the largest area in the last 15 years for the period, according to data from the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon). “The uncontrolled burning observed in the last four years is closely associated with an increase in deforestation and forest degradation in this period,” stated Mariana Napolitano, Science Manager at WWF-Brazil, heard by G1.

Illegal fires in the south of Amazonas and southwest of Pará states have compromised the air quality of several cities in the region, where a toxic cloud of smoke has taken over the skies. Among the municipalities hit were Altamira and Novo Progresso in Pará, and the capital of Amazonas, Manaus. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in August, 16,088 fires were registered in the Amazon.

The Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors the biome via the Deforestation Alert System (SAD), pointed to the record devastation recorded in the last 12 months. From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, an area equivalent to seven times the city of São Paulo. This is the largest deforested area in the last 15 years for the period.

For the Institute, the data is especially alarming, given the global climate scenario. “The increase in deforestation directly threatens the lives of traditional peoples and communities and the maintenance of biodiversity in the Amazon. In addition to contributing to greater carbon emissions in a period of climate crisis,” said Bianca Santos, a researcher at Imazon.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) indicates that the number of fires in the Amazon biome increased 8% in July, when compared to the same time frame from last year. A total of 5,373 fires were detected by satellite in the region. From January to July, the total was 12,906, an increase of 13% compared to the first seven months of 2021.

The Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) registered 2562 fires in the Amazon in June. The figure is the highest in fifteen years and confirms two trends: that every June sets a new forest fires record under Bolsonaro and that, in view of the election year, environmental criminals are taking advantage of the leniency of Bolsonaro’s environmental policy to carry out illegal fires.

The increase, compared to May, was of 11%. The biome is now entering the fire season, which lasts from July to October. Every year, more than 120,000 people are hospitalized in the region for respiratory problems during the season.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) released on June 1st showed that environmental devastation continues to grow in the country. The Amazon, with 2,287 outbreaks of forest fires, had the highest number of fires since 2004 and was 96% higher than last year.

In the Cerrado, the increase was 35% compared to May 2021, with 3,578 fires, the highest number since 1998, when measurements started. The tendency, according to specialists, is to get worse, since the most intense fire season has not yet arrived. Most of the burning, according to scholars, is done by the agricultural sector.

By March 2022, over 97% of the deforestation alerts issued since the beginning of Bolsonaro administration weren’t answered to, according to a survey by the MapBiomas initiative. The area with enforcement operations, however, represents 13.1% of deforestation detected since January 2019.

The data comes from the “Deforestation Surveillance Monitor” online platform, which presents “in a direct, updated, and transparent way the data on deforestation authorizations and enforcement actions by the federal government” and the state governments of Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, São Paulo, and Pará, explains the project’s website. “There are important advances, especially in the states, but the Monitor data show that impunity still looms large when we talk about illegal deforestation in Brazil,” says Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas.

According to a report released by the Climate Observatory at the beginning of the year, the environmental agency Ibama failed to execute about 60% of the budget for environmental crime control in 2021, a year in which the country broke successive deforestation records.

An internal document from the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute (ICMBio), responsible for the management of parks and conservation units, indicates that the agency is without resources to maintain the 3,0000 temporary employees who work directly in support operations to the agency. The General Coordination of Finance and Revenue sent the alert, to which the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo had access, to the institute’s board of directors.

The ICMBio has only 1,300 fixed employees and depends on temporary contracts to protect Brazil’s Conservation Units, especially during the fire season, which starts in May and lasts until November.

Questioned by the report, the agency said that “there are no budget cuts planned” and that it will keep “the same number of temporary agents hired in the federal conservation units”.

Deforestation alerts in the Amazon had a 22% increase in the month of February compared to the same period in the last year, as partial data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) points out. By February 25th, 149.88 km² were deforested, the second largest area for the month of february since 2016.

This is the second consecutive record of devastation of the biome in 2022. In January, the Amazon had 430.44 km² of its area with deforestation alerts, a number four times higher when compared to January 2021, and the worst since 2016, also according to INPE.

In January, the Amazon registered the highest deforestation rate for the period since 2016, the year that marks the beginning of measurements by the Deter satellite system, from the Space Research Institute (Inpe). There were 430 square kilometers of forest lost, an increase of 418% when compared to January 2021.

Most of the deforestation alerts monitored by Inpe were concentrated in the states of Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Pará.

Between August 10 and 11, 2019, farmers and landowners in the southwest of Pará state mobilized to set fire to areas of the Amazon forest in an episode that became known as “Day of the Fire.” In the period, the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) detected 1,457 hotspots in the state, an increase of 1,923% compared to the previous year. More than two years later, Repórter Brasil revealed that the burned area is now home to soybean fields. The agency carried out an unprecedented survey by cross-referencing the coordinates of the locations where it spotted the plantations with fire alert data from NASA satellites at the time.

One of the main areas affected by the fire, the Sustainable Development Project Terra Nossa, a settlement of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), was also invaded by monoculture, even though this type of cultivation goes against the purpose of this type of agrarian reform, intended for the subsistence of the settled families.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) formally approved the start of negotiations for Brazil to join the group, requested in 2017. Among the demands presented to Bolsonaro adminstration as conditions for the agreement are the reduction of deforestation and measures to mitigate climate change. provided for in the Paris agreement.

In response, Bolsonaro said that “there is no doubt that Brazil shares the OECD’s objective to support sustainable economic growth“, in a letter sent to the organization’s secretary-general, Mathias Cormann. 

In an article about the beginning of the negotiations, journalist Matheus Pichonelli cited the Smoke Signal socio-environmental monitor when highlighting the dismantling promoted by the government’s environmental policies in the last three years. On the country’s entry into the OECD, Pichonelli says that “to beckon with the club of rich countries, Bolsonaro will have to break with the club of agrotroglodytes”, alluding to the agribusiness sector, an important ally of the president.

With major vetoes, president Jair Bolsonaro approved the the Federal Government budget for 2022 sent by the Congress. Among the cuts, is a reduction of 35.1 million Reais in the budget for the Ministry of the Environment.  

A story published by O eco, revealed that the Environmental Agency IBAMA was the most affected by the budget cuts in the Ministry of the Environment, with a cut of 25,8 million Reais, which includes a 17,2 million Reais cut for prevention and control of forest fires in Federal Protected Areas. The program for sustainable use of soil, biodiversity management and environmental recuperation had a 8.5 millions cut. The National Indigenous Agency FUNAI saw a cut of 1.6 millions. 

The Ministry of the Environment’s total budget for 2022 is approximately 3,1 billions Reais, 6% higher than last year’s budget, which was the lowest in the last 21 years. 

The Rede Sustentabilidade party (Sustainability Network) filed an Argument of Violation of a Fundamental Precept (ADPF) 934 with the Supreme Court (STF), asking the federal government to “immediately provide the allocation and execution of sufficient funds” to continue monitoring the deforestation of the Cerrado savanna conducted by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), as reported by Conjur.

In early January, Inpe reported that it only has funds until April to maintain the 20 professionals that make up the team responsible for the daily monitoring and annual balances of deforestation in the biome, at a cost of R$ 2.5 million a year (US$ 500,000).

Considered the most threatened biome in Brazil, Cerrado has suffered the impact of the advancing soy and cattle agribusiness. In 2021, the region reached the highest deforestation rate since 2015, according to the monitoring by Inpe.

The Cerrado savanna biome monitoring project carried out by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) could be discontinued in April 2022. According to Inpe, the funding from the Forest Investment Program (FIP), managed by the World Bank and under the guardianship of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, which had maintained the monitoring team since 2016, ended on December 31, 2021.

According to Cláudio Almeida, coordinator of the monitoring program for the Amazon and other biomes, it takes R$2.5 million a year to maintain the 20 professionals who make up the team responsible for daily monitoring and annual balances of deforestation in the biome. The amount is equivalent to half of what the federal government spent on raisins in 2020, according to a comparison made by the One Planet website.

The work done by Inpe is essential for taking adequate measures aimed at the preservation of the Cerrado, which had a record deforestation rate in 2021 and is considered the most threatened biome in Brazil.

The Cerrado savanna biome recorded the highest rate of deforestation since 2015, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). According to a technical note from the institute, released on December 31, there was a 7.9% increase in the suppression of native vegetation from August 2020 to July 2021, the official period for measuring annual deforestation from the PRODES system, adding up to 8,531.44 km2.

Historically, the biome suffers from the advance of agribusiness and cattle ranching and had many conflicts over land and water, between landowners and local farmers, ribeirinhos, quilombolas and fishermen, a problem intensified with the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president in 2019.

Of the total deforested area, 61.3% (5227.32 km²) was concentrated in the region known as Matopiba, an agricultural frontier that encompasses part of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, indicates an analysis by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). Ane Alencar, science director of IPAM, says that the data needs to be taken seriously. “This region needs a special look at the conflicts that have become more acute because of this conversion [of native vegetation for agriculture and cattle raising]. The increase in deforestation in the Cerrado shows that the lack of environmental governance and the resulting socio-environmental conflicts are not prerogative of the Amazon alone”.

When heard by Reuters, the researcher stated that the increase in deforestation in the biome registered in 2021 is a reflection of the government’s stance towards the problem. “Deforestation is the most bare indicator of the terrible environmental policy that this government has had,” she concluded.