Deforestation in all ecosystems in Brazil increased by 20.1% last year, according to an independent study released this Monday, which indicates that in 2021 the Amazon lost an average of 18 trees per second.
“Brazil lost 16,557 km² of original plant cover in all its ecosystems last year”, after 13,789 km2 in 2020, indicates the Mapbiomas collaborative platform, which collects data from various satellite mapping systems.
111 hectares deforested every hour in the Amazon
Most of this deforestation (59%) took place in the Amazon. Then come the Cerrado, the Brazilian savannah (30.2%), the Caatinga, a semi-arid area in the northeast (7%), then the Atlantic Forest or “Mata Atlântica” (1.8%) and the Pantanal (1, 7%).
“In the Amazon alone, 111.6 hectares have been deforested every hour, or 1.9 hectares per minute, which is equivalent to almost 18 trees per second,” says Mapbiomas, which brings together NGOs, universities and technology companies.
Agriculture and livestock continue to be the main “pressure vectors” for deforestation, for which they are responsible for 97%. In the state of Pará (north), clandestine mines also exert strong pressure, according to the study.
The surface of the State of Rio de Janeiro
Since 2019, when far-right president Jair Bolsonaro came to power, deforestation in all ecosystems has reached 42,000 km², “almost the surface of the state of Rio de Janeiro,” according to the same source.
Environmentalists and the opposition accuse the Bolsonaro government of encouraging deforestation by defending the exploitation of the Amazon and weakening environmental control agencies.
According to official data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), between January and June 2022, the Brazilian part of the Amazon (60%) lost 3,988 km2 of forest area, a record for a first semester since 2016. date of the first records of the Real Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter).
Official figures also show that since President Bolsonaro came to power, the average annual deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.
Source: BFM TV
