Number of fires in Brazilian Amazon increased 7.9% in July

artigo jjjs Image of overflight made by Greenpeace in the Amazon in the last week of July – Photo: Christian Braga/Greenpeace

The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon reached 5,373 last July, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (Inpe). The figure is 7.9% higher than the same period last year (4,977). Forest fires in July were concentrated in the states of Pará (31.3%), Amazonas (26.6%) and Mato Grosso (22.3%). In the first half of 2022, Inpe’s deforestation alerts pointed to a 10.6% increase in devastation compared to the same period in 2021, a record with almost 4,000 km² of destruction.

According to Greenpeace,  which overflew the region in the last week of July and recorded images in the south of Amazonas and Rondônia, he Amazon “continues to be under intense threat with illegality and destruction still devastating large areas”.

“This is just the beginning of the Amazonian summer, a season with less rainfall and humidity, where unfortunately the practice of wildfires and criminal forest fires grows exponentially, whether to burn areas that were recently cleared and left to dry or even burning areas of forests that have already been degraded by illegal logging, for example. All this destruction and fire, in addition to decimating the forest and its rich biodiversity, also affects the health of the local population due to the smoke inhalation”, says Rômulo Batista, Amazon spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil.

 

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