Under Bolsonaro, deforestation is on the rise on Xingu basin

According to a report by the Xingu+ Network published by Mongabay, deforestation in the Xingu River basin region has skyrocketed under the Bolsonaro administration.

Between 2018 and 2020, environmental criminals ravaged 5,135 km2 of forest, an area three times larger than the city of São Paulo. The data comes from Sirad, a radar monitoring system. In 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro government, there was a 38% increase in deforestation in indigenous reserves in the region and 50% in the conservation units in the basin.

According to specialists heard by the story, land grabbers, loggers and gold diggers in the region are an old problem, but now the criminals feel emboldened and strengthened by Bolsonaro’s administration.