Bala Chambers
15 November 2022•Update: 15 November 2022
BUENOS AIRES
Brazil's vice president-elect called Monday for the current administration to provide data on deforestation levels in the Amazon.
Geraldo Alckmin, who is handling the transition between the administration of incoming President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro's government, announced that he had requested the full reports on the Amazon rainforest’s deforestation for the last year.
"We requested that the complete reports of the data from Prodes Amazonia and Prodes Cerrado from the period of August 2021 to July 2022 be sent so that we can analyze the information they contain and take the necessary measures," said Alckmin.
Prodes is a satellite system used by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) to observe and record deforestation in the Amazon region.
Alckmin, speaking in Brazil's financial capital Sao Paulo, add that the "numbers already exist" and underscored "the need to be informed" regarding deforestation levels in the Amazon.
Alckmin's request was made on the same day that Lula left to participate in the UN climate change conference COP27, which is underway in Egypt's resort city of Sharm el Sheikh.
COP27 will be the president-elect's first official visit since beating Bolsonaro in the second-round presidential runoff at the end of October.
On Monday, Lula, who has been pushing to re-establish Brazil's presence on the world stage and to clamp down on Amazon deforestation, wrote on Twitter that "we are returning to the world," with an emoji of a Brazilian flag and a globe of the world.
On Wednesday at COP27, he is expected to outline his push to tackle deforestation in the Amazon region to world leaders.
Last year, Bolsonaro's administration waited until the end of COP26 to release a report that revealed the worst Amazon deforestation in 15 years. The data was reportedly ready before COP26 began.
