Cerrado: country has to deal with legal deforestation in the biome – 06/07/2023 – Environment

Data from Deter, a system run by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), released this Wednesday (7) showed that deforestation in the cerrado in May grew 83% compared to the same month last year, with 1,326 km² deforested.

In the first five months of the year, the number is 35% higher than the previous period, breaking a record in the historical series for the biome, started in 2019.

The Ministry of the Environment estimates that half of the area deforested in the cerrado period has legal authorization given by the states.

Thus, say experts consulted by the Sheetthere is an indication that the country needs to deal, in addition to illegal deforestation, with legal felling in the most diverse savannah in the world.

As a rule, it is easier to deforest the cerrado. This is because legal reserves in the biome vary from 20% to 35%, almost the opposite of those in the Amazon, with 80% protected by law on rural properties.

In the Legal Amazon, deforestation accumulated in the first five months of the year fell by 31% compared to the same period of the previous year, returning to the level registered in 2020. There were 1,986 km² of forest cleared in 2023, against 2,867 km² in 2022.

In the fight against illegal logging, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change recorded an increase in the issuance of infraction notices (16%), property embargoes (37%) and destruction of equipment (38%) from January to May of this year, compared to the average of the previous four years.

The government also says that it has been trying to speed up the revision of the PPCerrado, the deforestation prevention and control plan, whose first meeting will take place next week. The equivalent document for the Amazon was published on Monday (5).

To face the increase in deforestation, the folder wants to discuss deforestation authorizations with the states, since 24 cities, distributed in six states —Bahia (10), Maranhão (5), Piauí (4), Tocantins (3), Mato Grosso (1) and Pará (1), concentrate half of the deforested area.

“The first action is to verify whether this deforestation is being authorized, and whether the legal basis for authorization is being respected. This is the first step: separating what is legal from illegality,” said the executive secretary of the portfolio, João Paulo Capobianco.

He said that all states in the cerrado were formally notified by the ministry on May 5, so that they could forward authorization data for the suppression of vegetation. The requests were repeated on the 22nd. No state has responded so far, according to the federal government.

Capobianco says that a new notification was made this Wednesday.

For Yuri Salmona, executive director of the Cerrados Institute, the country has a chronic problem with legal deforestation: the so-called authorizations for the suppression of native vegetation, granted by the environmental agencies of each state.

“In the cerrado, we have 20% of the legal reserve, 35% in the transition area [com a Amazônia]. What can be authorized is immensely greater”, said Salmona, comparing the scenario with that of the Amazon. For him, government actions should focus on improving the use of areas that have already been deforested.

“The path is to look at the fact that we have more than 30 million hectares of underutilized pastures, which mean that we no longer need to deforest. There are a series of public policies that the states can implement to correct this trajectory.”

The lack of consolidation of authorization data is also problematic, he explains.

“We have Sinaflor [Sistema Nacional de Controle da Origem dos Produtos Florestais]which should gather this information, but the states do not use it and authorize it [para desmatamento]. It lacks a check to know what is legal and what is not. The ministry itself has this difficulty,” he points out.

Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network that brings together more than 90 socio-environmental organizations, says that the government needs the states to deal with the problem.

“It is not possible for the government to launch a PPCerrado without the states being grounded in the plan. You have to investigate and sit down together with the state, or you get a double message: the federal government poses difficulties and the state government relaxes”, he assesses.

According to WWF-Brasil, actions taken by the ministry, such as limiting credit on rural properties with illegal deforestation, are welcome, but the government needs to create a quick structured fight.

“We hope that, like the Amazon, this region will receive more protection and initiatives like the PPCerrado”, said the organization, in a note.

The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.