Deforestation alerts break record in Cerrado; Amazon records lowest rate in four years
According to information from Deter, alerts in the Amazon reached the lowest rate in four years, while in the cerrado, the biome registered the highest number of alerts since the beginning of its historical series, between 2017 and 2018.
An area almost equivalent to the size of the capital of Amapá was deforested in the Cerrado - Foto Reproduction/Internet
According to information released by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) this Thursday (03), the Deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado presents opposite situations. While the Cerrado, the second largest biome in the country, registered a record of deforestation alerts, the Amazon, on the other hand, reached the lowest rate in four years.
Inpe uses a period from the middle of one year to the middle of the following year as an annual reference to calculate deforestation. This information, from the data collected by the institute, was released by the Environment Ministries It is Climate Change, as well as by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Survey
No period between August 2022 and July this year, the Cerrado recorded an alarming 21% increase in warnings issued by the Real Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter). Around 6,359 square kilometers of area were devastated, an area almost equivalent to the size of the capital of Amapá, Macapá. Most of this deforestation occurred in the region known as Matopiba, which encompasses the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia
The Amazon presented a significant reduction in deforestation alerts during the period from January to July this year, with a drop of 42.5%. This change represents a marked reversal, considering that in the previous semester there was a preference trend towards deforestation.
Between August 2022 and July this year, the Deter system issued alerts covering an area of 7,952 square miles, equivalent to the size of Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul. The decrease in deforestation intensities was observed in all states that make up the biome, marking the lowest value recorded in the last four years.
When compared to the period of the 2021/2022 season, the current period registered a drop of more than 7% in the accumulated alerts, which represents a reduction in area corresponding to 638 km². The historical record for alerts in the Amazon occurred between August 2019 and July 2020, with 9,216 km² of alert areas identified.
Difference
According to experts, the main difference between the two biomes is the so-called Reserve Legal, which consists of a mandatory percentage of native vegetation to be preserved on each property, according to the location defined by the state agency. In the Amazon, this preservation area is 80% of the property, while in the Cerrado it is only 20%. This difference in the legal reserve requirement allows deforestation in the Cerrado to be more easily authorized, which prevents the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) from applying significant assessments.
The executive secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, João Paulo Capobianco, revealed that the government is working on a plan to combat deforestation in the Cerrado, scheduled to be launched in October.
