Ok, maybe you innocently bought mainstream media's misinformation about Brazil's wildfires. Your favorite artist/athlete shared a pic of a burning koala. A hopeless politician shared a photo from 2003. So, to help us all out: a thread #AmazonFires #ActForTheAmazon #MacronLies
Some maps and numbers: this is Brazil, 8.516.000 km², world's fifth-largest country and a magnificent forest on the top left of it.
Now, let's color in green every environmental conservation Area: national parks, wildlife reguges, national forests, etc, etc. There are 1.871 of them and alone they cover 18% of Brazil's territory.
Next, on this map, we have all Indigenous Areas painted in yellow. There are 600 of them, occupying 14% of Brazil
When we add them, Environmental Conservation Areas + Indigenous Areas (overlaps excluded), it covers an impressive 30,2% of Brazil's territory. For some perspective, that is the size of 15 european countries put together.
is 30,2% too much or too little ? Well, there are few countries bigger than 2mi km² in the world, and on average they protect 10,5% of their territory. Brazil, therefore, protects 3x more. Isn't an absurd to hear "Brazil doesn't protect their forests" ?
Brazil is way ahead even though the comparison per se is unfair. Where r located protected areas in most countries? Many of them on deserts,ridges,permafrosts. USA: Mojave desert and Alaska; Russia: Gobi and Siberia; Australia: the outback. Easy to declare these as "protected"
back to Amazon., a closer look on Brazil's protected areas total reveals that 83% of them are located on the Amazon biome. That shows a special attention has been given to this region. And more important, an amazing 50,7% of Brazilian Amazon is already under State protected land.
IMPORTANT: until now, I've only shown numbers from State areas. Nº from protected areas that r located on private lands, mostly farms, are even better. Curiously, you will not hear these numbers from traditional media. I'll try to post later on. #FakeNewsAmazonia #PrayforAmazon
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