During Covid-19, deforestation rises and the Amazon is left exposed

In mid-2019, the Amazon rainforest made the front page of newspapers all over the world amid a huge uptick in deliberate fires to clear forest areas for pasture, farming, and mining activities. Now, with Brazil’s eyes fixed firmly on the health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, deforestation in the region is building once more, with official data showing alerts for forest clearing increasing 29.9 percent in March.

Though social isolation measures and a slowing economy were suspected to reduce deforestation in Brazil’s North, remote parts of the region have not adhered to containment policies and there is a belief that reduced oversight has opened an opportunity for loggers and land grabbers.

According to the Deter real-time monitoring system maintained by the Brazilian Institute of Space Research (Inpe), 326.51 square kilometers of forest were cut down in March alone, in comparison to 251.3 sq km for the same period last year.

Deforestation has been...