Technology to the rescue of the rainforest

Since taking office as president, Jair Bolsonaro has overseen the dismantling of Brazil’s already frail mechanisms for the curbing of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. While the upwards trend in deforestation took off in 2013, it has accelerated to dangerous heights over the past few months. In June, Amazon deforestation increased 88.4 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a study by the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe).

June was the second consecutive month seeing higher deforestation rates in the area. If this pace is maintained, the rainforest would suffer “irreversible damage” within the next decade—or within “two presidential terms with Jair Bolsonaro,” as recently stated Paulo Artaxo, a scientist at the University of São Paulo.

However, despite alarming conditions, local initiatives are trying to mitigate damage. In the Uacari Reserve of Sustainable Development—1,540 kilometers away from Manaus, the capital city of the northern state of Amazonas—, roughly...