Amazon deforestation in Brazil surges to 15-year high
Al JazeeraSpace research agency findings come after the Brazilian government at the COP26 climate summit pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2028. Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest soared 22 percent in one year to the highest level since 2006, according to the government’s annual report, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging. At the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month, COP26, Brazil’s government brought forward a pledge to end illegal deforestation by 2028, a target that would require aggressive annual reductions in the destruction. Mauricio Voivodic, head of environmental group WWF in Brazil, said the numbers laid bare “the real Brazil that the Bolsonaro government tries to hide with imaginary discourses and greenwashing efforts abroad”.