A line marks deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which increased under BolsonaroAerial view of a burnt area in Brazil, on September 17, 2022.
MICHAEL DANTAS/AFP via Getty ImagesUnder former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil cleared large swaths of the Amazon rainforest for farmland, accelerating deforestation.
In 2019 alone, the first year of the Bolsonaro administration, 2.4 million acres — a section of the forest about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined — was cleared, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.
About 60% of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil.
As the Bolsonaro administration winds down, incoming President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promises to reverse the environmental damage done in the Amazon.