2022 Year in Review

FIRES IN THE AMAZON
This blatant ignorance resulted in
Brazil accounting for more than 70%
of the 983 major Amazon fires
recorded by the Monitoring of the
Andean Amazon Project (MAAP)
during the fire season. In fact, 71% of
these major fires in Brazil were
caused by humans and burned in
areas that had been deforested
within the last three years.
These fires are often linked to
deforestation for soy farming by
companies who are yet to commit to
zero deforestation contractually.
Brazil's space research agency INPE
showed proof of these criminal
activities with satellite images,
showing that illegally deforested land
in the Amazon rainforest had been
replaced with row crops rather than
grass pastures.
The ongoing expansion of soy
plantations has resulted in Brazil
becoming the world's largest
exporter of soybeans.
DEMARCATION OF
INDIGENOUS LANDS
This destruction of the Amazon
rainforest in Brazil was not limited to
nature; it also affected the forest's
P H O T O : M I K H A I L S E R D Y U K O V O N
U N S P L A S H
citizens - Brazil's Indigenous
communities.
The interests of these ancient
civilisations were continuously
disrespected by Bolsonaro's
government, an administration
characterised by some of the most
significant setbacks in the
demarcation of Indigenous lands in
favour of "an integrationist vision that
focuses on 'civilising' the Indigenous
Peoples." Illegal gold mining on the
lands of the indigenous people by socalled
Garimperiros has been most
significant in driving these setbacks.
Illegal mining has further contributed
to environmental destruction.
The environment in numerous regions
in the Amazon, the source of the
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