Amazon forest fires reach new record in August and smoke invades Northern Brazil

The Amazon registered the worst number of fires for the month of August in the last 12 years, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). There were 33,116 fires, the highest number since 2010, when 45,018 fires were recorded. This is the 4th consecutive year of Bolsonaro’s admistration that the volume of fires in the period is above the 28,000 mark.

On Amazon Day, celebrated September 5, the smoke caused by the fires spread over the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, Mato Grosso and Pará, covering an extension of 5 million km², reported INPE.

From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, the largest area in the last 15 years for the period, according to data from the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon). “The uncontrolled burning observed in the last four years is closely associated with an increase in deforestation and forest degradation in this period,” stated Mariana Napolitano, Science Manager at WWF-Brazil, heard by G1.