Amazon Deforestation in Brazil Has Risen for Thirteen Consecutive Months

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Deforestation in the Amazon once again increased in May, completing 13 consecutive months of growth over the same months last year, according to data from the INPE (Space Research Institute).

In May, the destruction in the biome grew 12 percent compared to 2019, and reached its highest rate for the month ever recorded in the recent DETER historical series, the INPE program, whose data supports inspection activities.

In May, the areas under alert totaled 829 km². Pará accounts for 344 km², followed by Amazonas, with 182 km², and Mato Grosso, with 177 km². Compared to the month of April, the deforestation alerts more than doubled, with an increase of 103 percent.

Despite not being initially intended to measure deforestation, DETER’s data can be used to assess deforestation trends over a given period.

Between January 1st and May 31st, deforestation alerts were reported for 2,032 km² of the Legal Amazon, the highest figure since 2015, 34 percent higher than in the same period in 2019, and 49 percent higher than the average between 2016 and 2019.

The consolidated deforestation data are obtained by PRODES (Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon), which is released annually, considering the period between August and July as the “fiscal year”. After collecting data up to July 31st, the PRODES processes and generates preliminary data that are released from October to November each year. Scientific publications show a high correlation between the DETER data and the final figures by PRODES.

With two months to go until the end of the PRODES system measurement calendar, the cumulative figure for the ten months in the current calendar points to deforestation alerts for 6,499 km², a 78 percent increase over the preceding period (from August 2018 to May 2019).

In 2019, when the PRODES calendar was completed, the record rate of deforestation reported was 29.5 percent compared to the preceding period (August 2017 to July 2018). In all, 9,762 km² were deforested. The PRODES monitoring reliability index is over 95 percent.

For WWF-Brazil’s science manager, Mariana Ferreira, the data for May is disturbing.

“The data point to a growing trend of deforestation in the period, with even higher rates than in 2019 – an already exceptionally high year. We are facing a scenario of total catastrophe for the Amazon, expecting more areas to be cleared, invaded and burned in addition to the sad scenario of the spread of the pandemic throughout the biome,” she said in a statement.

Cristiane Mazzetti, a spokesperson for Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign, says in a statement that the federal government is failing to provide a “robust, permanent strategy with clear rules to contain the advancing deforestation” just before the driest period in the Amazon when burning usually occurs in the region.

“The government continues to evidence its total disregard for the environment, the forests and the lives of Brazilians,” she said.

Source: Folhapress