June 6, 2021

This Week in Human Rights News

Deforestation in the Amazon hits 14-year high in May 2021

Sources: Mongabay (1, 2), Human Rights Watch

This May 2021, Brazil’s national space research institute INPE reported a sharp rise in deforestation in the Amazon. 

According to INPE, approximately 1,180 square kilometres of forest - or 20 times the size of Manhattan - was destroyed in the first 27 days of the month. This is a 42% increase from May 2020.

This marks the highest deforestation level in May dating back to at least 2007. 

However, the final figure for May is still expected to rise as scientists go through the remaining data. 

With the dry season starting soon, scientists are also voicing concerns about the fire season, especially in the southern and eastern part of Amazon. There was less rainfall than expected during the wet season, increasing the risk of fires and forest-clearing.

The deforestation occurred in four states: Pará (36%), Amazonas (24%), Mato Grosso (21%), and Roraima (15%). 

The deforestation has been attributed to cattle ranching, clearing for agriculture, and more recently, an increase in illegal mining activity (due in part to the increasing price of gold). May 2021 was the second highest monthly level of deforestation associated with mining since August 2016. 

Several proposed bills are pending in Brazil’s houses of Congress that would create loopholes for mining on Indigenous lands and grant amnesties to land grabbers if approved. 

Since Jair Bolsonaro took office as Brazil’s President in 2019, deforestation has increased by nearly 50%, reaching a 12-year high.

Some of the areas affected by the recent increase in illegal mining activities are in the Tapajós-Xingu moist forest, described as a “key biodiversity area” and also a designated “protected landscape”. This means that it is an area with cultural, ecological or biological importance where for-profit activities (logging, mining) are allowed, depending on the region’s management plan.

Illegal mining poses threats beyond deforestation - Human Rights Watch has also linked it to mercury poisoning to people and ecosystems living beyond the area affected by deforestation.

HRW also reported that Indigenous people fear that miners could spread COVID-19 in their communities.