A vanishing rainforest

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Brazil’s total forest area has been shrinking, including the Amazon. Hundreds of kilometers are deforested every month in the Brazilian Amazon. Between August 2019 and July 2020, over 6,500 square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed. The largest share of the deforested area occurs in the country's North and Central-West regions, in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.

Agriculture and farming are among the main hazards for the survival of the rainforest, although wildfires are also one of the reasons for the damage suffered by its ecosystem in recent years. In 2019, almost 200 thousand wildfires were detected in Brazil. The Amazon biome accounted for the majority of the outbreaks, representing nearly half the wildfires identified in all the national territory.

Who is to blame for the Amazon's destruction?

According to opinion polls, Brazilians deem logging companies, farmers, and the country’s federal government responsible for the Amazon’s deforestation. Public opinion in Brazil is generally favorable of increasing control measures to prevent illegal deforestation. However, older generations tend to perceive the forest's demise as less worrisome than Millennials or Generation Z respondents. So is the case with Brazil’s male population, who agree to a lesser degree with the importance of the topic, when compared to women.

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