How Amazon deforestation rates have fallen since Bolsonaro
- July 8, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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How Amazon deforestation rates have fallen since Bolsonaro
Subject :Environment
Section: Climate Change
Context:
- After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6 per cent during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, according to government satellite data.
Details:
- From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometres, down from 4,000 square kilometres during the same period last year.
- This year’s data includes a 41 per cent plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.
Source of the data:
- The deforestation data comes from a system called Deter, managed by the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency.
- It is an initiative mainly focused on detecting real-time deforestation. The most accurate deforestation calculations come from another system called Prodes, with data released only annually.
Why has deforestation increased in Amazon?
- The former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro weakened environmental authorities while his insistence on the development of the Amazon region resonated with landgrabbers and farmers who had long felt maligned by environmental laws.
- Many Ibama agents retired and weren’t replaced during Bolsonaro’s administration.
- Ibama is a Brazilian authority that takes on tasks comparable to those of the German Federal Environment Agency.
- Thousands of illegally raised cattle within embargoed areas.
- Bolsonaro openly criticized Ibama and advocated for the legalization of deforested areas.
- Experts say the mere expectation that a land-grabbed area will eventually be regularized has historically been one of deforestation’s biggest drivers.
- They were emboldened, and Amazon deforestation surged to a 15-year high.
Forest fires in Amazon:
- According to satellite monitoring, there were 3,075 fires in the Amazon in June alone, which marks the beginning of the dry season — the most since 2007.
- The jump is due to the clearing of areas deforested in the second half of 2022.
- In the Amazon, fires are mostly man-made and occur after clear-cutting of the forest.
- With El Niño looming, which typically brings less rain and higher temperatures to the Amazon, Ibama has doubled its budget for fighting forest fires and increased the scope of its fire squads by 17 per cent for the most critical period, typically July to October.
- Approximately half of the 2,117 temporary firefighters are Indigenous peoples.
Steps taken by the present government to restore the Amazon forests:
- The Amazon rainforest covers an area twice the size of India and holds tremendous stores of carbon, serving as a crucial buffer against climate change. Two-thirds of it is located in Brazil.
- Lula has promised to end net deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon by 2030. His four-year mandate, his third term, ends two years earlier.
- Lula (present President of Brazil) campaigned last year with pledges to rein in illegal logging and undo the environmental devastation during Bolsonaro’s term.
- Whereas Bolsonaro openly criticized Ibama and advocated for the legalization of deforested areas, Lula has said he will rebuild law enforcement and promised to expel invaders from protected areas.
- Lula has committed to restoring the workforce in Ibama.
- Working of Ibama:
- Ibama has strengthened remote surveillance, where deforestation is detected through satellite imagery.
- By cross-referencing with land records, it is possible to identify the owner of the area in many cases, leading to an embargo that restricts access to financial loans and imposes other sanctions.
- Another strategy has been to seize thousands of illegally raised cattle within embargoed areas. It is effective because it inflicts immediate punishment, whereas fines are rarely paid in Brazil due to a slow appeals process.
What more is needed?
- It is necessary to invest in sustainable productive chains under community management, such as managed pirarucu (arapaima) fishing, Brazil nuts, vegetable oils, and açai.
- This will help revitalize and expand these chains, generating decent income for those engaged in conservation efforts within their territories.
- Ibama’s Agostinho also stressed his agency’s efforts within Indigenous territories, particularly the land of the Yanomami people where thousands of illegal gold miners — seeking to carve out a living — invaded during Bolsonaro’s term.
- Their activities contaminated waterways and sickened local people, and Lula’s government has spent months expelling most of them.
- Some remain, however, working at night to avoid being caught.
About Amazon rainforest:
- The Amazon rainforests cover about 80 per cent of the basin and as per NASA’s Earth observatory, they are home to nearly a fifth of the world’s land species and is also home to about 30 million people including indigenous groups and several isolated tribes.
- The Amazon basin is huge with an area covering over 6 million square kilometres, it is nearly twice the size of India.
- The Amazon forests have absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to moderate the global climate
- The basin produces about 20 per cent of the world’s flow of freshwater into the oceans. Over the last few years, the forest has been under threat due to deforestation and burning.
- Forest fires, have doubled since 2013.