An area equivalent to counties Galway, Mayo and Sligo was deforested in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil between 1 August 2020 and 31 July 2021.

The data was recorded by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The area deforested covered 13,235km2. This is almost the size of counties Galway, Mayo and Sligo, which cover 13,576km2.

The amount of rainforest cleared as of July this year is up 22% from 2020 when 10,851km2 was cleared.

15-year high

These figures point to a 77% rise in deforestation levels on 2018 records, which was before Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil.

The last time deforestation in Brazil's rainforest reached such highs was in 2006, when 14,286km2 was destroyed.

The space research institute considers deforestation "to be the complete removal of primary forest cover by clear cut, regardless of future use of these areas".

The states of Pará, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Rondônia correspond to 87.25% of the estimated deforestation in Brazilian states which have Amazon cover.

COP26

Earlier this month at COP26, 114 world leaders, including Brazil, pledged to end world deforestation by 2030.

At COP26, they committed to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”.

The pledge is backed by $12bn in public funding and $7.2bn in private funding.

Nations such as Brazil, China, Australia, Russia and the US, along with the EU, are among the countries who signed up to the

pledge.

All 114 nations support 85% of the world’s forests, an area of over 13m square miles, absorbing around one-third of global CO2

released from burning fossil fuels each year.