In the last month of President Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest rose by a good 150 percent compared to the same month last year. As the state observation program Deter announced on Friday, 218.4 square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed in December. This is more than 150 percent more than the 87.2 square kilometers of forest felled or burned in December 2021.
Fires and deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest had increased sharply under right-wing President Bolsonaro. His successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office at the beginning of the month, is raising international hopes that protecting the Amazon rainforest can step up the fight against the climate crisis. When he took office, Lula promised to stop deforestation and reactivate conservation programs.
Ragged carpets, broken floors, broken windows
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro apparently left the head of state’s official residence in Brasília in the worst possible condition: the new First Lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva led reporters from TV Globo through the Alvorada Palace on Friday, to discuss its condition after the previous one had moved out to show residents.
Parts of the famous building were “run down,” said the wife of the new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the tour, pointing to ragged carpets, broken floors, broken windows and water damage to a ceiling. A huge banquet hall filmed by the TV crew was completely empty, with all furnishings apparently removed.
An unknown number of pieces of furniture and works of art from the presidential residence are missing, said Rosangela da Silva. Other furnishings were damaged, and a 19th-century painting was simply lying on the floor. In the historical library, on the other hand, electronic equipment lay scattered around, from where Bolsonaro gave weekly video speeches during his term of office, which ended at the turn of the year.
Da Silva announced that she and her husband would first renovate the presidential palace and have the damage repaired. Only after a complete inventory of the inventory did they want to move into the residence. The plan is to put the pieces of furniture and works of art on the list of national heritage “so that it cannot happen again that a president takes historical objects that belong to the Brazilian state”.
