Brazil Amazon deforestation reaches 10,000 sq km

Preliminary government data released on Friday indicated that annual deforestation in Brazil's Amazon may have surpassed 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) for the third straight year, continuing a worrisome jump since President Jair Bolsonaro assumed office.

The area deforested from August to July – the 12-month period that is Brazil's reference – was 8,793 square kilometers, just below last year's record, according to daily alerts compiled by the National Institute for Space Research's Deter monitoring system.

That data is considered a leading indicator for complete calculations released near year end from the more accurate system, Prodes.

It uses at least four different satellites to capture images, addressing oversights in preliminary data caused by lower resolution and cloud cover.

Ludmila Rattis is a researcher with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

She visited Apiacás in the state of Mato Grosso, where a deforestation operation was being carried out.

Rattis said that "besides the loss of biodiversity, the interruption of the carbon and water cycles, what we are seeing here today affects the local climate a lot."

Rattis, in partnership with the US based Woodwell Climate Research Institute, travelled to Apiacás to help create solutions for more efficient control of fires and burning.

Before Bolsonaro's term began in 2019, the Brazilian Amazon hadn't recorded a single year with that much deforestation in over a decade and, between 2009 and 2018, the average was 6,500 square kilometers.

However, the far-right president has encouraged development of the biome and dismissed global handwringing about its destruction as a plot to hold back the nation's agribusiness.

At the same time, his administration defanged environmental authorities and legislative measures to loosen land protections have advanced, emboldening land grabbers.