As per official data published by National Institute for Space Research’s Prodes monitoring system, the area deforested in Amazon Forest of Brazil has reached a 15-year high.

Key Facts

• There was a jump of 22 per cent as compared to year 2020.
• As per data, Brazilian Amazon lost 13235 square kilometres of rainforest in between August 2020 to July 2021.
• This figure was highest since 2006.

Amazon Rainforest

Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest, located in Amazon biome. It covers most of the Amazon basin in South America. This basin has an area of 7,000,000 km2. Out of this area, 5,500,000 km2 are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territories of nine nations. Majority of the forest (60 percent) is in Brazil. It is followed by Peru 13% and Colombia 10%. Minor forests are in Bolivia, Guyana, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela. Amazon represents more than half of Earth’s remaining rainforests. It comprises of the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest, wherein 390 billion individual trees are divided into 16,000 species.

Deforestation of Amazon

Main causes of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land. In 2018, 17% of the rainforest was already destroyed. Forest fires are another reason of deforestation. In 2019 alone, there have been 72,843 fires in Brazil, with Amazon region accounting for more than half of the fires. In June 2019, Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by more than 88% as compared to 2018.

By: Brijesh Kumar