It's been a terrible end of the decade for the Amazon rainforest as the efforts brought on by the people during the previous decade seemed all for naught as the largest rainforest in the world is shrinking again.
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WHAT CAUSED THE AMAZON FIRES?
Before 2019 ends, the world was shocked by the news of the Amazon forest engulfed by tens of thousands of man-made fire. To get a proper picture of the damage caused by these fires, imagine the size of New York City and include the Bronx and Staten Island. All these areas together measure up to 300 square miles. Triple that measurement, and you'll get the land area of the Amazon Rainforest ravaged by fire.
According to the report provided by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), it is no coincidence that the fires occur in areas where there is widespread deforestation. The report states that at least 125,000 hectares of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared and burned in August of this year.
MAAP offered a base map that shows the overlapping of this year's deforestation rate and fire hotspots including 16 high-resolution timelapse videos showing newly cleared agricultural lands. Although there wasn't a major forest fire recorded, the risk of it occurring is still very high as the dry season continues.
Aside from MAAP, Brazil's National Insititute for Space Research also released data that there are 3,769 miles of rainforest lost due to deforestation. This the highest recorded rate of deforestation in the country since 2008: 30% higher than the previous rate recorded by INPE.
The people of Brazil pointed fingers at the right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro for all the damage done in the rainforest. Ever since Bolsonaro swore to office, his administration gave way to budget cuts and laid off staff at the environmental regulatory agencies that supposedly target illegal logging and ranching within the Amazon. Bolsonaro's primary reason? These regulations hinder Brazil's economic growth. Critics and environmental activists argued that these are the reasons why after all these years, deforestation in the Amazon spike up again.
Cristiane Mazzetti of Greenpeace recently said in a statement: "President Bolsonaro's anti-environmental agenda favors those who practice environmental crimes, and encourages violence against forest people. His administration is trashing practically all the work that has been done in recent decades to protect the environment and end deforestation."
Meanwhile, Climate Observatory, a network of environmental advocacy groups in Brazil declared that the data INPE released did not only show the highest deforestation rate in the span of 11 years but also marked the third-highest record. According to Carlos Rittl of the Climate Observatory, "the question that remains is how long Brazil's trading partners will trust the promises of sustainability and compliance with the Paris Agreement, as forest fall, indigenous leaders are killed and environmental laws are shattered."
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THE SILENT WAR IN THE AMAZON
If there is a group of people directly affected by this crisis in the Amazon rainforest, it's the indigenous people. For centuries, the indigenous people in the Amazon and specifically in Brazil have been attacked and persecuted by institutions that wanted to convert the area into agricultural land. By the 1980s, the indigenous people were able to guarantee their rights and homes in the Amazon. And like the return of massive deforestation in the world's largest rainforest, so are the human rights violations against the indigenous people.
As of 2019, it was recorded that three-quarters of the original rainforest that belong to the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhao has been converted to cattle ranches. One of the oldest forests in the region lies in the indigenous territory of the Arariboia, an area that is home to 10,000 Tenetehara and 80 Awa indigenous people.
However, loggers -- illegal or legal -- have been settling in Arariboia and more of them are becoming bolder with President Bolsonaro's verbal attack on environmental activists. Most of these loggers even had the guts to use tractors to open dirt tracks into public lands and indigenous territories to be able to get timber.
Back in November, five men ambushed two Tenetehara men name Kwahu and Tainaky. The former was killed while the latter was shot in the back and arm. The Tenetehara believed that these men are involved -- if not in cahoots with -- the loggers. These attacks on Amazon's primary defenders have contributed to the crisis regarding the forest. Scientists are worried that if this crisis persists, the Amazon will be pushed to the point that it will start to degrade. The indigenous people play a crucial role in protecting the environment and when they are being killed almost every day, degradation will surely follow.
