Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on the need for an international response to the Amazon wildfire crisis.

In the summer of 2019, a record number of fires, many intentionally set, swept through the Amazon rainforest, reducing large chunks of it to piles of ashes.

But, after the initial public and media outcry,

how has the international community responded

and what are the plans to ensure that this ecological disaster

doesn't repeat itself in the future?

Stay with us.

Spreading over eight South American countries, Amazonia is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth.

It makes up around 6% of the Earth's total surface and holds 10% of the world's biodiversity and 20% of its fresh water.

These lungs of the planet, as many like to call it, provide valuable ecological

services for the entire planet, but also a source of livelihood for hundreds of indigenous

groups and forest-dependent peoples. But this paradise is in danger. An explosive population

growth combined with uncontrolled human activity in the area such as illegal mining,

the expansion of agriculture, overfishing, poaching and deforestation are threatening the

sustainability of the entire area. It is estimated that around 20% of the Amazon forest has already

been lost and some studies predict that by 2050 or or even as soon as 2030, the loss of this tropical

forest could reach a tipping point.

Against this background, the increased frequency of droughts and forest fires are only adding

cause for concern.

And the situation reached a critical point during last summer's dry season when an area of over 9,000 square kilometres of Amazon forest was lost to fires.

Forest fires are a recurrent problem, but some of the recent policies adopted by the Brazilian and Bolivian governments in particular may have played a role in last summer's wildfire crisis.

Let's start with the Bolsonaro government.

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