Bolsonaro has been busily gutting environmental agencies, and in early February signed a draft law allowing large scale mining, oil and gas extraction, and other destructive activities on Indigenous territories. There is concern around the rainforest, known as the "lungs of the earth", in Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia and the Pantanal. In a closed-door meeting, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles urged Bolsonaro to take advantage of global leaders’ Covid-19 blinders to simplify regulations, according to a video of the gathering released by the Supreme Court on May 22. The Amazon Is Still on Fire. During his presidency, the 65-year-old has opposed protections for the rainforest, saying the land should be used for agriculture and mining. The Pantanal is a vast area of wetland which experienced a five month drought earlier this year. On a … FIRES that are ripping through the Amazon rainforest are set to be the most devastating, leading to fears that the ecosystem could collapse. Smoke rises above the Amazon rain forest, outside an indigenous reservation in Roraima state, Brazil, in January 2019. its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. Forest fires were prohibited after over 30 international investors threatened to divest from Brazilian companies if the government didn't act to curb the destruction of the rainforest, CNN reports. ACLS/Mellon Public Fellow, Latin America Campaign Advocate. And once the blazes start, MapBiomas’s Azevedo said, they’re nearly impossible to stop. Depending on weather conditions, the smoke from Amazon fires can spread far and wide, according to Azevedo. The Inpe previously released information about an 85 percent jump in deforestation from 2018-2019, a rise that is attributed by ecologists to a so-called “Bolsonaro effect.”. Soybean plantation in Belterra, Brazil. An expanding agricultural and cattle frontier, together with mining and uncontrolled economic exploitation are some of the primary causes for deforestation. Meanwhile, the federal government has retrenched after last year’s outcry forced Bolsonaro’s hand in bolstering enforcement with national troops. The best way to do this, she noted, was through heavily monitoring U.S.—Brazil supply chains and trade networks and calling on companies to not use materials from deforested lands. Chris Bradford; 7 Aug 2020, 12:57; Updated: 7 Aug 2020 ... the Amazon rainforest … Romulo Batista, an Amazon campaigner for Greenpeace, accused the president of "using the Covid-19 pandemic as a smokescreen to further enable deforestation, logging and mining in the Amazon.". LUNGS OF FIRE Amazon rainforest could ‘collapse’ as 2020 fires are set to be most devastating yet. So far numbers are down on last year's peak but experts fear that amid an unprecedented dry fire season, blazes could rage for longer. Panel convened on “Resisting the Right Wing Assault in Brazil,” Joenia Wapichana (far right) speaks. When you sign up you'll become a member of NRDC's Activist Network. According to the National Institute of Space Studies (Inpe), 284.3km2 of forest coverage was lost in January 2020 alone. Sign up to receive the Green Daily daily newsletter and follow us @climate. At least 55,000 fires were recorded last year in Bolivia - a new record for the country, with 6.4million hectares affected nationwide. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Cadaver dogs smell HUMAN REMAINS by Carole Baskin's missing husband's lake house, Katie Price's daughter Princess orders her to take down embarrassing photo, Holly Willoughby gives fans a first glimpse of her swimming pool at £3m home, McDonald’s worker pays customer’s bill after he calls mum to ask for her order, Dales star Danny Miller's home has huge bed big enough for 3 kids & the dog, ©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Every year, illegal loggers use bulldozers and chainsaws to rip through huge swaths of jungle, land that’s then set on fire to make way for crops or cattle. Unlike last year, when images of 300-year-old trees ablaze fueled international outrage, little stands in the way now. The territory -- which loggers were forced to abandon last year when threats of derailed trade deals strong-armed a reluctant Jair Bolsonaro into boosting enforcement -- may double to some 9,000 square kilometers as tree felling continues, said Ipam, citing data from Brazil’s national space institute. Researchers found that 70 percent of the total carbon emitted from the Amazon between 2003 and 2016 came from areas outside of Indigenous-held land and protected areas.