Photo courtesy of World Rainforest Movement

The Coronavirus is enabling a mass increase in logging globally, as criminal groups and illegal loggers take advantage of the disruptions associated with the pandemic.

In the month of March, more than 2,500 square miles of forest were lost, mainly in Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Brazil, an increase of one and one half times the logging rate over the month of March from 2017 to 2019.

Under the ruthless and racist Bolsonaro regime, Brazil’s logging surged by 171%. The incursion of loggers into Indigenous territories in Brazil is causing Coronavirus infection among the people, and many fear it will lead to genocide. Adding fuel to the fire, Bolsonaro recently issued a decree to legalize land grabs in Indigenous reserves. The decree is awaiting congressional approval.

The Guardian quoted Alessandra Munduruku an indigenous leader from Pará stating, “The indigenous peoples are alone and we have to fight against the virus, the loggers and the wildcat miners. We don’t know which is worse.”

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project.