Since the 1970s, widespread tree removals (including felling and burning) in the Amazon basin have reduced the area of the Amazon rainforest by approximately 17%. Although the rate of forest loss has slowed in decades, recent data shows that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon basin has been the highest in a decade in the past two years!
The fact is that most of the major fires in the Amazon area occurred in areas that were recently deforested. Andean Amazon Project Monitoring Director Matt Finer once said that in the Amazon, fires are not random events, and there is a close relationship between deforestation and major fires.
Therefore, in the past two years, the Amazon rainforest area has also frequently observed fire smoke. On August 24, 2021, a satellite captured images of fires raging in the Amazon region in the northeast of Vista Alegre do Abun, Rondônia, Brazil. The burning ground is releasing thick smoke, clouding the satellite imagery with a layer of gray.
On the same day, a satellite from NASA also aimed at this area and captured a large amount of thick smoke emerging from the border of Amazonia and Rondônia in Brazil, showing that fires in this area are active. People in the Amazon Basin often set fires on cleared land to maintain pastures and fields, but according to NASA, more fires are actually related to deforestation in this area.
Douglas Morton from NASA pointed out that since late July 2021, fire activity in the Amazon region has surged, mainly caused by deforestation. This is clearly the case in northern Rondônia, Brazil. Analysis shows that 80% of the fires detected by satellites are related to deforestation.
Scientists believe that deforestation and understory forest fires (that is, low-intensity flames that spread along the forest floor) can cause the most lasting damage to forests and lead to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In contrast, the impact of clearing fires related to savanna and agriculture is relatively short-lived.
The scale and intensity of deforestation fires in the Amazon region have been quite severe this year. Douglas Morton pointed out that what is happening is different from the small-scale clearing fires that were common decades ago. Satellite observations are already in Rondônia. 10 fire incidents of more than 50 square kilometers were found, that is, each fire is larger than the total of 7000 football fields. This is not what can be done by ordinary agriculture to clear fires, but is caused by deforestation.
In recent weeks, fire activities in the southern Amazon region have also accelerated, which is one of the fastest growing areas of agricultural expansion in the Brazilian Amazon. Due to the recent changes in road traffic and agricultural land demand in the area, satellites have noticed that deforestation fires in Rondônia, Brazil increased significantly in July and reached their peak in August.
In addition, according to Brazil's G1 news network, the Amazon lost 4,640 square kilometers of forest in 12 months.
The agency collected data from satellites and research data on Amazon forest monitoring and logging from July 2020 to July 2021. The Brazilian government has been criticized by other governments and conservation organizations for the deforestation of the Amazon forest. However, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon forest is still increasing steadily.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro promised in April to end illegal deforestation in less than 10 years, and even signed a decree allowing troops to be sent to the Amazon as part of an effort to combat environmental crime.
