Deforestation in the Amazon reaches highest level in 15 years

Deforestation in the Amazon reaches highest level in 15 years as area the size of Yorkshire is lost in a single year

• Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil at its highest level in 15 years
• The rainforest had lost 5,110 square miles from August 2020 to July this year
• It has been claimed Brazil knew this before this year’s Cop26 climate summit

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 01:17 GMT, 20 November 2021 | Updated: 01:23 GMT, 20 November 2021

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has reached its highest level in 15 years.

The area of trees lost rose by 22 per cent in a year despite President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging.

Data from space research agency INPE showed the rainforest lost 5,110 square miles – close to the size of Yorkshire – to deforestation from August 2020 to July this year, the highest recorded since 2006.

The Amazon basin in north-western Brazil in 2019. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has reached its highest level in 15 years

An official in northern Brazil inspecting a deforested area in the Amazon rainforest earlier this year

It has been claimed Brazil knew this before the Cop26 climate summit during which it signed up to a deal to end deforestation by 2030.

Mauricio Voivodic, of WWF, said: ‘This is the real Brazil that the Bolsonaro government tries to hide.’

:

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk