Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest reaches new levels ahead of presidential elections

Introduction

A stretch of former lush green Amazon forest cover has been bared due to overgrazing and deforestation. 

The effects of climate change have been visible very clearly in the last few decades. The increasing number of climatic extremities every year is becoming more and more severe and detrimental to the overall health of our planet.

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsenaro’s policies to incentivize the country’s natural resources for profit, is pushing the planet farther towards the tipping point.

The Amazon Rainforest has existed for about 55 million years now and is one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world, contributing to almost 12% of the atmospheric oxygen content.

Deforestation in the Amazon basin has boomed by nearly 92% since January 1st, 2019, when Jair Bolsenaro took the presidential office, securing nearly 55.1% of the votes in the national elections.  

Since then, thousands of square kilometres of forest have fallen to loggers and ranchers. Gone are the glory days when the Amazon was revered as an important national resource.

With nearly 17% of the forest already gone, scientists predict that if the state of things in Brazil continues, we might be looking at the complete destruction of the Amazon rainforest and perhaps its conversion into a desert like savannah.

Agricultural businesses contribute to nearly a quarter of the country’s GDP as of today, but greed and profitability have clouded the conscience of the people of Brazil. The once green and bountiful forest frontiers are being rapidly replaced by cattle ranches, rubber plantations, and vast fields of soy.  

It has been five years since Bolsenaro proudly declared, “Amazon is now open for business.”

Indeed, for five years now, deforestation in the Amazon basin has increased exponentially. Human expansion has driven back the forest, essentially destroying the fertility of the soil to such an extent that savannah like conditions have already begun to emerge.

Countless undiscovered species of flora and fauna that the Amazon rainforest harbours are now under threat of being lost forever. Human expansion in the name of profitability and better living standards bears a heavy cost for the future of the Amazonian Rainforest and the world at large.  

The benefits of human expansion is making many people rich these days. In 2018, Brazil exported nearly $6 billion dollars worth of beef into the international market, thereby making it the largest contributor to the world’s beef market.

The environmental laws and policies put in place for controlling overgrazing are potentially non-existent in Bolsenaro’s reign.

The number of cattle in the Amazon basin alone is about 50 million as of this day. This large number of herbivorous animals leads to the most common cause of the deforestation of the Amazon basin: overgrazing.

The consumption of vegetation in such large quantities hastened soil erosion and air pollution (dust pollution). 

 (A cattle ranch in the Amazon Basin) 

Since the beginning of his term, Bolsenaro has made it clear on multiple occasions that the issue of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is of little primacy to him.

Be it the act of sacking of law enforcement or important environmental officials, it is certain that Bolsenaro will stop at nothing to exploit the country’s natural resources in the name of economic development and prosperity. 

The indigenous populace of the rainforests have been trying hard to attract international attention to the country’s rapid loss of natural resources.

Land grabbers, along with corrupt government and law enforcement officials, have been venturing and encroaching into the national forest reserves and Indigenous territories protected by international laws and regulations.

But when the heads of nations are corrupt, resistance is rarely fruitful. Indigenous tribes are fearful of their fates and that of the forest.

As the sounds of gun shots and chainsaws draw closer, everyday indigenous tribes are getting backed up into a corner in fear of extermination. The relentless wheel of human conquest knows no bounds or mercy.

Powered by profit, it bulldozes everything that stands in its way.

Knowing Bolsenaro’s strong anti-environmental discouse, it is certain that ahead of the election year, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon is going to increase rapidly.

Unless a new pro-environment government is elected by the people of Brazil in the following elections.

Published By : Akshita Katoch

Edited By : Khushi thakur