Addressing those concerns, on July 16, the government banned burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months. Bolsonaro also issued an order in May for the military to coordinate environmental actions in the Amazon. Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the Advanced Studies Institute in the State University of Sao Paulo, said the deforestation index also has remained high this year until July, compared to the last couple of years. “We can conclude, with data until the end of July, that the effectiveness of government actions to reduce fires and deforestation is low,” he said. Carlos Rittl, senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Germany, also told The Associated Press that trends in the Amazon are worrisome.

Source: International New York Times August 01, 2020 22:07 UTC