The area deforested in Brazil’s Amazon reached a 15-year high after a 22 per cent jump from the prior year, according to official data published Thursday. The National Institute for Space Research’s Prodes monitoring system showed the Brazilian Amazon lost 13,235 square kilometers of rainforest in the 12-month reference period from August 2020 to July 2021. That’s the most since 2006.

The 15-year high flies in the face of Bolsonaro government’s recent attempts to shore up its environmental credibility, having made overtures to the administration of US President Joe Biden and moved forward its commitment to end illegal deforestation at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month.