Deforestation alerts in the Brazilian Amazon increased 25 percent from January to June 2020, compared to the same period last year according to preliminary data released on Friday.
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Over the last six months, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded deforestation alerts on 3,070 square kilometers in the Brazilian Amazon.
In June alone, alerts show that the devastation of the world's largest tropical forest by 10.7 percent, despite the presence of the Armed Forces troops, which were deployed supposedly to prevent indiscriminate felling of trees.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recalled that Brazil is going through the second consecutive year of increasing deforestation in the Amazon since Jair Bolsonaro sworn in as President in January 2019.
Recently, however, in an attempt to please European investors, his administration announced that, over the next 120 days, it will ban the use of fire as a practice to prepare plantation fields in the Amazon basin.
"Although no square meter is burned in the current fire season... the greatest damage has already been done," Conservation and Restoration Director Edgar Rosa said.
Last year, large fires spread throughout the region and their shocking images alarmed the world and leaders of the developed countries, who questioned the Bolsonaro administration's commitment to preservation policies.