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There are a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has reported  in 2019 to date. That is over the same period in 2018. These fires threaten biodiversity, as certain species cannot escape the fires. And as the Amazon burns, it releases carbon into the atmosphere, further .

It’s impossible to talk about current threats to the Amazon rainforest without discussing Jair Bolsonaro. Inaugurated as Brazil’s president in January 2019, Bolsonaro is a who supports opening up the Amazon to increased deforestation and mining. He the head of Brazil’s INPE for sharing deforestation data that Bolsonaro did not approve of and has living in the Amazon.

in the Amazon since Bolsonaro took office, with the rate reaching nearly 4,000 square kilometers in July, according to the . The INPE further found that deforestation in June 2019 was than in June 2018. Bolsonaro supports the industries, such as logging and agriculture, which are cutting down or burning the rainforest’s trees. Under the Paris Climate Accord (which the country is still signed on to), Brazil has committed to by 2030.

One of the main drivers of deforestation is agriculture. For example, swaths of the Amazon are being razed to make room for cattle grazing. Brazil provides of the world’s beef, and all the cows need pasture—not a forest. Roughly of deforested Amazon in Brazil are currently pasture for cattle. To make that kind of space, agribusiness burns large swaths of land to clear it. Soy is also a culprit: Brazil has devoted nearly to soy production and is the world’s second-largest producer of the crop. The fires have sparked about how meat consumption is partially responsible for agribusiness slashing and burning the forest.

Another business venture tearing through the rainforest is illegally mining for gold. Gold isn't just for jewelry; it's used in iPhones, speakers, laptops and many more everyday technological items—and a lot of it comes from the Amazon. Since the 1980s, over of rainforest in the Madre de Dios region of Peru has been razed or poisoned because of gold mining, and nearly in rainforests throughout all of South America.  is used for much of this gold mining, and the toxic metal then seeps into the water and soil.

Over comes from hydropower, and the country is the producer in the world. While advocates of hydroelectric dam projects in Brazil say that they are essential for the country’s development, many of them are built on the Amazon River, with major impacts. A found that these dams can adversely affect fish reproduction, nutrient distribution in soil, and can cause flooding in some areas.

Small-scale fishing has historically been an important food source for many communities living along the Amazon River. But as small fishing operations have morphed into larger ones, overfishing has been endangering populations of species. Researchers found that are being hunted for food and for use as bait. Another study has shown that the has been fished nearly to extinction.

While the legal wildlife trade in the Amazon is a , illegal trafficking also occurs which, while harder to quantify monetarily, has a large impact on the local ecosystem. Some trafficked items include plants like and the eggs of exotic birds, such as the hyacinth macaw. Along with habitat loss, egg poaching is threatening the hyacinth macaw’s numbers, which are estimated today at

The construction of roads and highways in the Amazon allows for previously hard-to-reach places to become deforested. According to Peru’s Environmental Investigation Agency, 95% of deforestation happens from a road. Brazil’s , built in 1972, has allowed loggers, miners, and colonizers to destroy large areas of forest. A new road in the Peruvian Amazon, approved in 2017, could cause the deforestation of , according to satellite mapping by Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project.

Bolsonaro's administration has been openly hostile to the Amazon's many indigenous communities, which has prompted . Emyra Wajãpi, an indigenous leader, was murdered by miners in northern Brazil and more recently, a Brazilian government official who advocated for indigenous protections, . In addition, their protected communities in the Amazon are being encroached upon as miners and farmers go further into the forest and they are currently experiencing disastrous impacts from the . Besides the loss of land and outright violence, more isolated indigenous communities could be in danger of epidemics if to which they have no immunity.

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