Fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest surged in October and the number of blazes is up 25 percent in the first 10 months of 2020, compared to 2019, data from government space research agency Inpe showed on Sunday.

According to data released by Brazilian media on September 1, Brazil's Pantanal recorded a total of 5,935 fires from August 1 to 31. Since monitoring began in 1998, it is second only to the record in 2005. There were 5,993 fires in a single month. Photo: VCG

October recorded 17,326 hot spots in the world's largest rainforest, more than double the number of fires detected in the same month in 2019. Destruction of the forest has soared since Brazil's right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, took office in 2019.

The president says he wishes to develop the region to lift it out of poverty, while environmental advocates say his policies embolden illegal loggers, miners and ranchers. 

The number of fires so far in 2020 remains at a decade high. In only the first 10 months of 2020, Brazil has surpassed the total number of fires for full-year 2019, when the destruction spurred international criticism that Brazil was not doing enough to protect the forest.

Advocacy group WWF-Brasil blamed the government for failing to stop those who cut down the forest.

"With the rate of deforestation increasing in recent years, the government has ignored the warnings of researchers: Deforestation and forest fires go together," WWF-Brasil science manager Mariana Napolitano said in a statement.

"After cutting down the forest, the criminals set fires to clean up the accumulated organic material."

Fires in Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, also increased in October.