In September deforestation in the Amazon collapses, but Cerrado suffers
Official INPE data on Amazon deforestation published
In the month when there is usually a boom in the Amazon deforestation, illegal logging has fallen substantially. In September the ilegal desmatation rate fell by almost 57% compared to the same month last year, at the end of the Bolsonaro era. This was communicated by INPE, the Brazilian Space Research Agency that monitors by satellite the state of the legal Amazon, the Amazon basin sector belonging to Brazil.
Deforestation in the Amazon marks -56.8% in September
Last month chainsaws wiped out 590 square kilometers of tropical forest. An area larger than 3 times Milan. A data still very high but in dive if compared with the 1,454 km2 destroyed in September 2022. This confirms the direction taken by President Lula, who took office in January.
In the first 9 months of the year, in fact, deforestation in the Amazon has eaten 4,302 km2 of forest, that is 49.5% less than the same period of 2022. The data on fires – mostly of anthropic origin and linked precisely to deforestation – is also down, which in September marks -36% compared to 2022. Lula promised to bring deforestation in the Amazon to zero by 2030.
read also Lula fails to reverse Amazon deforestation: in March +14%
Bad news from the Cerrado
Lula’s new course, however, is limited only to the Amazon. The data of the Inpe certify the bad situation of the Cerrado, the tropical savannah located south of the Amazon rainforest and one of the richest and oldest prairies in the world. And again, behind the boom in deforestation are the interests of agribusiness, which seem to focus on this biome while the Brazilian government continues the repression against illegal activities in the Amazon. In September, between fires and chainsaws, 516 km2 of Cerrado disappeared. It is the worst figure for this month since 2018 (when the surveys began) and marks an increase of 86% compared to the same month of 2022.
