Red alert: Deforestation in Brazilian biomes skyrockets by 22% in 2022, reveals study by MapBiomas

According to the most recent MapBiomas Annual Deforestation Report (RAD), the Amazon and Cerrado were responsible for 90% of the deforested area in the country last year.

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Deforestation in 2022 registered the equivalent of about 90% of the total area of ​​the state of Sergipe - Photo Reproduction / Getty Images

Deforestation in Brazilian biomes registered an increase of 22.3% in 2022, reaching the mark of more than two million hectares devastated in a single year, which is equivalent to approximately 90% of the total area of ​​the state of Sergipe. Specifically in the Amazon, the rate of deforestation indicates that around 21 trees are cut down every second. These alarming data are revealed by the Annual Deforestation Report in Brazil (RAD), prepared by MapBiomas, which analyzes land use in the country since 1985. The situation is alarming and calls into question the preservation of the environment in the country.

Report

During the period from 2019 to 2022, there were more than 303,000 cases of deforestation, covering an area of ​​6.6 million hectares, which is equivalent to one and a half times the area of ​​the state of Rio de Janeiro. During that time, a total of 76,193 deforestation alerts, resulting in a total area of ​​2,057,251 hectares deforested last year.

In 2022, deforestation proved to be a major activity, averaging 234.8 hectares per hour or 5,636 hectares per day. At amazon, specifically, deforestation reached the mark of 3,267.5 hectares per day or 136.1 per hour. The report highlights that there was an increase in the rate of deforestation in all biomes, except the Atlantic Forest, which remained stable. According to the document, the day with the highest deforestation record in 2022 was on July 25, when a total of 6,945 hectares were deforested, equivalent to approximately 8,400 football fields.

Us Amazon and Cerrado biomes approximately 90% of the entire deforested area is concentrated. These two regions are jointly responsible for 70.4% of the deforestation alerts and for 90.1% of the deforested area in 2022. Although the Cerrado contributes with only 8.3% of the total alerts, the amount of deforested area in this biome represents almost a third of the deforestation that occurred in the country in the last year (32.1%), due to the size of the alerts.

Agriculture is the main responsible for deforestation in the country, with percentages above 95%. In certain regions of Pará, there was a concentration of alerts related to mining activity as a pressure vector.

Pará is in a prominent position

In the ranking of deforestation, the state of Pará stands out, accounting for 22.2% of the deforested area in the country, totaling 456,702 hectares. Next is Amazonas, with 13.33% (274,184 ha). There was a 37% increase in the deforested area in Amazonas compared to 2021, which allowed the state to surpass Mato Grosso for the second consecutive year. In third place is Mato Grosso, with 11.62%, followed by Bahia, with 10.94%. Maranhão lost one position in the ranking, reaching the mark of 8.2% of deforested area. Together, the five states accounted for two-thirds of the deforestation detected in the country in 2022.

Counties

Among the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, 3,471 (62%) registered at least one deforestation event verified in 2022. Of the municipalities with alerts in that year, only 50 were responsible for 52% of the total area deforested in Brazil. Of this group, 17 municipalities are located in the state of Pará, while eight are in Amazonas. Surprisingly, the municipality of Lábrea, in the Amazon, had a deforested area of ​​62,419 hectares, surpassing the deforested area of ​​the municipality of Altamira, in Pará, which was the leader in deforestation in the last three reports. Over the past four years, only 1426 municipalities (25.6%) have not detected deforestation.

More conserved areas

Quilombo Remnant Communities (CRQ) e as Indigenous Lands (TIs) are the most preserved territories in Brazil today. In 2022, deforestation in ILs represented only 1.4% of the total deforested area in the country and 4.5% of the total alerts validated in that period. Most of the alerts (91%) and the area deforested in ILs (26,598 hectares) is concentrated in the Amazon biome. For the second consecutive year, the Apyterewa TI (PA) recorded the largest deforested area, with 10,525 hectares affected in 594 deforestation events.

Regarding the CRQs, the deforestation that affects these communities represented only 0.05% of the total area deforested in Brazil in 2022. Of the 456 certified CRQs, only 62 (26.1%) presented at least one deforestation alert detected and validated in the year, with a minimum area of ​​0.3 hectares. CRQ Kalunga (GO) was the most impacted, with an area of ​​258 hectares of suppressed native vegetation, part of it located within the Pouso Alto Environmental Protection Area, close to the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park.

illegal deforestation

The Report examined the measures adopted by the bodies responsible for environmental enforcement to combat illegal deforestation, including assessments and embargoes. Until May 2023, the assessment and embargo actions carried out by IBAMA and ICMBio addressed only 2.4% of the deforestation alerts and 10.2% of the deforested area identified in the period from 2019 to 2022. However, when we analyze the 59 municipalities priorities determined by the Ministry of the Environment to fight deforestation in the Amazon, these numbers improve a little: 4.1% of the total alerts and 17.7% of the deforested area.

When also considering the efforts of the states, the percentage of alerts with actions and authorizations increases to 9.7% and, in terms of area, reaches 35.5%. During the period from 2019 to 2022, the states with the highest proportion of measures taken by environmental agencies and public ministries in response to deforestation were Espírito Santo (73.7% of alerts in the state), Rio Grande do Sul (55.6% ), São Paulo (40.3%) and Mato Grosso (37.3%). On the other hand, the states with the lowest performance were Pernambuco (0.8%), Maranhão (1.6%) and Ceará (1.9%).