In 2019, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil had a record year of fires with 73.000 in total. The fires were so massive that they darkened the city of São Paulo in the middle of the day - several thousand kilometers away. 2019 was the worst year of deforestation in 13 years, and this year is set to be even worse.
Mato Grosso is the area in the Brazilian rainforest with the most fires so far this year, with 4437 so-called “hot-spots” between the 1st of January to the 13th of July, according to data from the INPE, Brazilian Space Research Institute. In the first two weeks of August there has been an alarming 15.000 hot-spots.
Even more alarming knowing that fires are not allowed at all in this area between July and September - making all these fires illegal. These fires are not accidents, or natural. Landowners and farmers set fire to the rainforest in order to free up more areas for cattle and industrial farming. According to this study, cattle ranching in Brazil is not even an economical sound investment, the productivity is notoriously low, and the people who want to eat the cattle live far away from where it is produced, making it an all around bad investment.
More important is the lives that are being lost, and the livelihood that won’t come back. A recent study confirmed what indigenous people has said for a long time - they are the best guardians of the rainforest - as long as they are fully protected by the property laws stating that they own their territories. But the indigenous are being forced out of their areas with fire in order to make space for more deforestation. In the Munduruku indigenous land, there was an increase of fires of 78 per cent from only last year.
So what can we do? Right now, a massive free-trade deal is being negotiated between the Mercosur countries Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - and the EFTA countries Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg. It is vital that we use this trade deal to come with demands on behalf of nature and the Paris-agreement. Until the deforestation is stopped, this trade deal can not happen. Please use this link and sign Greenpeace’s petition urging Norway to take responsiblilty
The Amazon has a unique and irreplaceable ecological system, vital in both stabilising the climate and water supply for the entire region. It must be preserved. This wild behaviour can not be allowed any longer. The Amazon are Earths green lungs and without our lungs we can not breathe.
