Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest soared 22% in a year to the highest level since 2006, the government’s annual report showed on Thursday, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging.

Brazil’s space research agency, INPE, recorded more than 13,000 square kilometers of deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest in its satellite data, an area nearly 17 times the size of New York City.

At the UN climate summit in Glasgow this month, COP26, Brazil’s government brought forward a pledge to end illegal deforestation by two years to 2028, a target that would require aggressive annual reductions in the destruction.

The INPE report, dated October 27, showed deforestation rising in each of the last four cycles – a first for the data series since at least 2000.

Source: VOV5