Region of deforested forest in the Acrean Amazon. Image by Marcio Pimenta. Brazil, 2019. 
Region of deforested forest in the Acrean Amazon. Image by Marcio Pimenta. Brazil, 2019.

The new Brazilian government, under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, has cut funds and international agreements aimed at reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. This has affected government agencies such as IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of the Environment) and ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) in their ability to respond to environmental crimes.

In just eight months of administration under the new government, the first impacts on the Amazon show that between January 1 and August 22, 2019, 76,720 fire outbreaks were recorded, 85 percent more than in the same period of 2018, when there were 41,400. The data are from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which also points out that over 80 percent of the territory devoured by flames is in the Amazon.

This project is a journey through an area of the Amazon affected by forest fires, where business is trying to claim land for beef and soy farming.

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