According to recent satellite data, an area the size of a football pitch is being cleared from the Amazon rainforest every minute by logging corporations.
The forest provides a valuable natural store in carbon, which it has accumulated over thousands of years. The leaves are also responsible for absorbing a large quantity of carbon dioxide, which we would otherwise see adding to the atmosphere and to the rise in global temperatures.
In a recent estimate it was determined that the trees in the Amazon rainforest absorbed the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide to the fossil fuel emissions of most of the nine countries that own or border the forest, between 1980 to 2010. Without the forest acting as a CO2 sponge, the knock on effect could be disastrous.
The forest also has the richest biodiversity in the world, with it being home to a tenth of all of the species on the planet, and sees near to one million indigenous people who live, hunt and gather in the habitat. The more trees we remove, the less protected areas remain and the likelihood of dangerous outcomes for those people and animals increases.
Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro has banned his environmental staff from talking to the media, but an unauthorised interview revealed that the President's operation is backed by agricultural businesses and small farmers who believe that the Amazon region is too protected and that the environmental officials have too much power. However it can be seen that those agricultural businesses and small farmers are looking after their best interests, as most of the forestland is cut down for farmland, so cattle can graze comfortably.
The President states he wants to weaken the laws that protect the forest, as opposed to protecting their "ecological heritage" for future generations like the environmental officials are looking to do. From within the government and outside of the country, many are rallying to prevent further deforestation.
