These data were released Friday by the Center for Weather Prediction and Climate Studies (INPE) as part of the agency's real-time monitoring system: Deter-B initiated in 2015.
According to INPE, deforestation alerts in the Legal Amazon in 2022 reached the largest area since 2015, while they became equivalent to more than 8 times the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro, totaling 10 267 km².
In the period from August to December last year, a cumulative total of 4 793 km² was recorded, representing an increase of 54 percent compared to the same period in 2021. It was the worst accumulated in the last seven years.
INPE also referred only to December 2022 when deforestation alerts reached 218 km² which is 150 percent more than in 2021 thus recording the third-worst December since 2015.
In this regard, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Marcio Astrini said that the administration of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro "has ended, but his nefarious environmental legacy continues."
According to Astrini, "the alerts of destruction of the Amazon have reached historic records in recent months." The executive secretary said that current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inherits "a kind of contracted deforestation."
The Climate Observatory points out as statistical evidence the increase in the destruction of the Amazon recorded in the final stretch of Bolsonaro's government.
Lula for his part promised during his campaign to lead efforts to achieve zero deforestation by 2030 by establishing environmental protection as one of the main agendas of his government.