The open source web application for monitoring global forests in near real time, Global Forest Watch , estimates that, between 2002 and 2019, Brazil lost an accumulated area of about 24.5 million hectares of primary forest, which represents 7, 1% of the country's total in 2001 . In recent years, aggressive logging and slash-and-burn policies have increased, with farmers turning to fire to turn areas of rainforest into farmland.
This practice ends up unleashing much more devastating fires, such as those that swept through Brazil in 2020.
One of the regions most affected by deforestation is the Amazon, the largest tropical forest on the planet, with approximately 60% of its extension in Brazil.
In total, the Amazon has about 6.24 million square kilometers and is the habitat of more than 10% of the species of flora and fauna of the entire planet.
The trees of the Amazon rainforest absorb millions of tons of harmful greenhouse gases every year; however, these are released back into the atmosphere when they burn.
A study carried out by Brazil's National Institute for Special Research for a decade and published in 2020 suggested that about a fifth of the Amazon is currently "a carbon source" rather than a "carbon sink", thanks to the wild deforestation of the area.
