Often described as the ‘lungs of the planet’, the Amazon rainforest provides 20% of our planet’s oxygen and currently stores billions of tonnes of carbon. Without this climate change would speed up at a drastic rate. The rainforest also maintains biodiversity as despite covering only 1% of the planet’s surface, it contains 10% of all wildlife species we know about. We all benefit from the health of the Amazon. However, the rainforest is being burned, 80,000 fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, an 80% rise compared to the number of fires in the same period last year.
Why is the Amazon being burned? The land is mainly being cleared for cattle grazing. This is done by a practice called slash and burn, which is to blame for most of the flames, where patches of the forest are cut down, the area is allowed to dry out and then the remains are set ablaze to make room for agriculture or other development. Fires can also be set to replenish the soil and to encourage the growth of pastures for cattle.
The fires have a political root however. When far-right Jair Bolsonaro campaigned for office in 2018 he called for setting aside less land in the Amazon for indigenous tribes and preservation, instead allowing industry to come into the rainforest. Since being elected in 2018, he has put the Ministry of Agriculture in charge of demarcation of indigenous territories instead of the Justice Ministry. This has been described as ‘letting the fox take over the chicken coop’ by one lawmaker. It is likely that President Bolsonaro’s government has encouraged legal logging and farming, reduced inspections and ignored illegal land grabs where the land is burned and goes to ranchers. Bolsonaro denies that his policies are responsible for the destruction of the rainforest. He fired the head of the National Space and Research Institute after they showed an 88% increase in deforestation in June compared with the same month a year ago. He has also rejected $22 million in aid from the world’s seven largest economies after French President Emmanuel Macron took to Twitter to call for action, pushing for emergency international talks on the Amazon at the G7 summit. Bolsonaro accused Macron as treating Brazil as a colony and has said he will only accept the money if macron takes back his ‘insults’ and if Brazil has control on how the money is spent.
What can we do to save the rainforest? There are several ways we can all contribute to putting out these fires. Firstly, by donating to the WWF emergency appeal.This will allow WWF Amazon teams and local organisations to carry urgent work on the ground. Also by signing this petition to demand that the UK Government to commit to a deadline ending the importation of goods that have caused deforestation. Furthermore, we can take steps to eat more sustainably. As cattle ranching accounts for around 80% of the forest cleared in the Amazon, decreasing our beef intake will reduce the demand for this. Similarly, reducing wood and paper consumption will make a difference, as setting fires is part of the process for collecting timber. Doing this will reduce commercial pressures on the Amazon.