Brazil’s Amazon records over 2,000 fires in June, highest since 2007
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jul 1 (EFE).- Some 2,308 forest fires were detected in the Brazilian Amazon in June, the highest monthly figure recorded in over a decade.
Brazil’s national space research institute INPE said the number represented a 2.6% increase compared to the same month in 2020.
It is the highest number of fires recorded in the region, one of the most biodiverse on the planet, since 2007.
The latest figures were published in the same week that the government of Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree banning man-made fires in the region for a period of 120 days, coinciding with the dry season.
Fire is often used to clear areas of the Amazon for farming.
Ecologists have warned that the occurrence of fires could increase in the coming months, especially in August and September, when the dry season hits its peak.
Amazonian fires have increased under the mandate of Bolsonaro, a far-right climate change skeptic who’s policies on the environment have been criticized by experts and other governments.
International pressure on Bolsonaro to do more to protect the important ecosystem, sometimes referred to as the Earth’s lungs, has led to France threatening to stall the trade agreement between the Mercosur, of which Brazil is a member, and the European Union.EFE
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