Deforestation of the Amazon in

A file photo taken on September 22, 2017 shows an aerial view of deforestation in the Western Amazon region of Brazil. Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth’s capacity to accommodate humanity’s expanding appetites, the conservation group WWF warned on October 30, 2018. For freshwater fauna, the decline in population over the 44 years monitored was a staggering 80 percent. Regionally, Latin America was hit hardest, seeing a nearly 90 percent loss of wildlife over the same period.
CARL DE SOUZA / AFP

Deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil spikes to a ten-year high

Deforestation in the Amazon reaches a ten-year high between August 2017 and July 2018.

Deforestation of the Amazon in

A file photo taken on September 22, 2017 shows an aerial view of deforestation in the Western Amazon region of Brazil. Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth’s capacity to accommodate humanity’s expanding appetites, the conservation group WWF warned on October 30, 2018. For freshwater fauna, the decline in population over the 44 years monitored was a staggering 80 percent. Regionally, Latin America was hit hardest, seeing a nearly 90 percent loss of wildlife over the same period.
CARL DE SOUZA / AFP

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has hit its highest rate in a decade, according to official government data.

Roughly 7,900 sq km (3,050 sq miles) of the rainforest was destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018 which is an area more than four times the size of Johannesburg.

The annual survey was informed by satellite data from the deforestation monitoring project known as Prodes.

Brazil’s Environment Minister Edson Duarte has pinned the problem on illegal logging carried out by crime syndicates.

The latest figures come just as concerns over the policies of Brazil’s newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro have begun making headlines.

During his 2018 election campaign Bolsonaro pledged to limit fines for damaging forestry and to weaken the influence of the environmental agency ostensibly in a bid to stimulate the economy in the South American country.

The president-elect has announced that his administration intends to merge the agriculture and environment ministries, which most critics feel would further endanger the rainforest.

The states of Mato Grosso and Pará have been the scene of the most widespread deforestation according to the latest government data seeing a marked 13.7% rise over last year’s figures.

Mato Grosso produces more grain than any other state in Brazil, where environmentalists say expanding agriculture is also encroaching on the rainforest.

Duarte fingered “an upsurge in organised crime” for the illegal deforestation, and said that the country must broaden its fight against “environmental violations and in defence of sustainable development of the biome”.

The rate marks a significant climb from last year, when the rate of deforestation dropped by 16% over a 12-month period but still marks a 72% drop from 2004, when the Brazilian federal government stiffened measures to combat deforestation.

Between 2003 and 2004 an area greater than the size of Rwanda – more than 27,000 sq km – was cleared from the Amazon forest.

The Amazon region is home to the largest tropical rainforest in the world and to plant and animal species that are still being discovered.

Most of the millions of square kilometres of the forest are in Brazil, where under laws dating back to 1965 ensure that landowners keep a percentage of their property forested.