Deforestation in the Amazon has spiraled out of control during Jair Bolsonaro’s as president. InfoAmazonia and PlenaMata have illustrated the destruction using satellite imagery.

Hoping to win re-election on Sunday, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is approaching the end of his fourth year in charge of the country. In that time, he has overseen widespread environmental destruction, and is set to finish his term with Amazon deforestation exceeding 40,000 square kilometers — an area the size of Switzerland.

Between Mr. Bolsonaro taking office in 2019 and 2021, Brazil’s annual deforestation rate more than doubled in comparison to the three-year period ending in 2018, taking forest destruction to historic levels.

More than 13,000 square kilometers (sq km) of the Brazilian Amazon were cut down in 2021 alone, the highest yearly total in 15 years. And preliminary data suggests that 2022 will break that record once again. Projections from the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe) show that this year’s deforestation total should hit close to 15,000 sq km.

InfoAmazonia, in conjunction with PlenaMata, has pored over satellite imagery of Mr. Bolsonaro’s time as president and focused on key areas which help illustrate just how destructive this government has been to Brazil’s Amazon.

This widespread forest destruction has been boosted by maneuvers to reduce oversight and the application of environmental crimes, as well as by the resumption of old projects to occupy the Amazon region — such as the paving of the BR-319 highway.

The south of Amazonas state — an area with a high concentration of indigenous and traditional peoples and which presented low rates of forest destruction until recently — is now regarded as the new frontier of Amazon deforestation, which is advancing through the north of Rondônia state toward large swathes of untouched vegetation.

A large part of this devastation is concentrated around the BR-319 (Porto Velho to Manaus) and BR-230 (Trans-Amazonian) highways, where land-grabbing and violent conflicts have also become more prevalent. In the case of the BR-319, deforestation in the road’s vicinity is now 2.5 times the average of the Amazon as a whole.

The destruction during the Bolsonaro government is transforming forest preservation areas and putting indigenous communities such as the Piripkura in Mato Grosso and Ituna-Itata in Pará at severe risk. In the two aforementioned territories, invaders are making significant inroads into these protected areas, cutting down forest to open up space for pasture.

Similar devastation has been caused by the advance of illegal gold mining, which poisons rivers and drives indigenous communities from their ancestral homes. In the Yanomami and Munduruku territories, indigenous people have suffered violent attacks from illegal gold miners.

This form of mining has spread across indigenous lands like never before under Mr. Bolsonaro’s watch. The area taken up by mining activities in 18 indigenous territories reached almost 200 sq km in 2021 — more than double the total in 2018, and five times more than 2013.

This story was originally published by InfoAmazonia in portuguese long form, and it was translated to English and adapted by The Brazilian Report.