Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon broke the monthly record for September, according to official figures, triggering calls from environmentalists to vote far-right President Jair Bolsonaro out of office later this month.
In the latest worrying news on the rainforest, satellite monitoring showed 1,455 square kilometres of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon last month, according to national space agency INPE's real-time surveillance program, DETER.
An area almost the size of Leitrim, and the worst for September since the program was launched in 2015.
The previous record for September was also under Mr Bolsonaro: 1,454 square kilometres in 2019.
The figures came as Mr Bolsonaro battles to win re-election in an 30 October runoff against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to work to achieve net-zero deforestation.
Mr Lula - who also faced criticism at times for his environmental record as president - won Sunday's first-round election with 48% of the vote, to 43% for Mr Bolsonaro.
Mr Bolsonaro, an ally of the powerful agribusiness sector, has faced international criticism for presiding over a surge of destruction in Brazil's 60% share of the world's biggest rainforest, a key buffer against global warming.
Since he took office in January 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75% from the previous decade.
Experts say the agribusiness industry is driving the destruction by clear-cutting and burning forest to turn it to farmland and pasture.
With three months to go, 2022 is already the second-worst year on record for deforestation, at 8,590 square kilometres, according to DETER.
That is second only to 2019, Mr Bolsonaro's first year in office, when 9,178 square kilometres were destroyed.
The second- and third-worst years were also under Mr Bolsonaro - 2020 and 2021, respectively.
"Anyone who cares about the future of the rainforest, the lives of indigenous peoples and the possibility of having a livable planet should vote to remove Bolsonaro," Marcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.
Mr Bolsonaro's campaign defends his record as "balancing environmental protection with fair and sustainable economic growth."
