Amazon Forest Deforestation Has Hit Its Worst Point, Bolsonaro Charged With Responsibility

Presiden Brasil Jair Bolsonaro (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - In 2020, deforestation or deforestation in the Amazon, Brazil reached the worst level in the last 12 years. President Jair Bolsonaro's leadership has been highlighted again because of his long-standing policies that have not been oriented towards environmental conservation.

Launching CNA, Monday, December 1, Brazil's National Space Research Agency showed an increase in deforestation of up to 9.5 percent. This means that around 11,088 kilometers of forest have been lost due to deforestation. The area is equivalent to seven times the area of London (England).

In the official annual deforestation measurement, PRODES, the researchers compared satellite images from late July 2020 with satellite images from early August 2019. Brazil is known to have violated the 2009 Climate Change Act. . The target was far off the mark.

When environmental activists criticize the government for the increasing rate of deforestation, government officials have praised the figures. They see the increase as a form of progress in fighting deforestation. For them, the deforestation data for 2020 are much lower than in 2019.

"Although we are not here to celebrate this. It shows that our efforts are starting to bear fruit," Vice President Hamilton Mourao told reporters at Inpe headquarters in the satellite city of Sao Paulo, Sao Jose dos Campos.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro once again took a controversial move that actually weakened the Brazilian Ibama Environmental Enforcement Agency. Agriculture and mining, said Bolosanaro, are far more important than forests.

"The PRODES figures show that Bolsonaro's mining plans are successful. They reflect the results of a successful initiative to destroy the capacity of the Brazilian State and inspection bodies to protect our forests and fight crime in the Amazon," said one Brazilian non-profit organization in a statement.

Bolsonaro even involved the military to curb protests against the destruction of the Amazon in 2019. Therefore, deforestation in the forest in the coming years is predicted to increase significantly.

Because of this, world leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, strongly criticized Bolsonaro's move. The President-elect of the United States (US), Joe Biden also criticized Bolsonaro in the last US presidential debate to immediately fix deforestation. If not, Biden will stop all forms of assistance to Brazil.