Brazil records worst annual deforestation for a decade
by Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro from Environment | The Guardian on (#43K6R)
Nearly 8,000sq kms lost in the year to July amid alarm new president Jair Bolsonaro will make situation worse
Brazil has released its worst annual deforestation figures in a decade amid fears that the situation might worsen when the avowedly anti-environmentalist president-elect Jair Bolsonaro takes power.
Between August 2017 and July 2018, 7,900sq kms were deforested, according to preliminary figures from the environment ministry based on satellite monitoring - a 13.7% rise on the previous year and the biggest area of forest cleared since 2008. The area is equivalent to 987,000 football pitches.
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