Deforestation in the Cerrado has a record and falls in the Amazon – 05/05/2023 – Environment

Deforestation in the Cerrado reached 709 km² in April this year and set a record for the month in the historical series, which started in 2019. The data published by Deter, a program by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), counts until the 27th, and the number may increase.

The Amazon registered a decrease, with 287.7 km² deforested until April 28th. The number is 72% lower than the month recorded in 2022.

The deforested area in the Cerrado, however, is almost the size of the capital of Goiás. The numbers had already registered a record in the first quarter of this year, amid the beginning of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and government actions to regain control of deforestation.

In the accumulated result for the year up to April 27, the deforested area reached 2,133 km², also a record index compared to the period from January to April in previous years. The region coexists with a deforestation belt, according to Ibama.

Deter alerts (Real Time Deforestation Detection System) are issued weekly. In addition to the tool, the Lula government resumed the PPCerrado, a plan inspired by the PPCDam (Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Deforestation in the Amazon), launched in 2010.

Deter maps and issues deforestation alerts with the aim of guiding actions by Ibama and other inspection bodies. The results represent an early warning, but they are not closed data on deforestation.

The official numbers are from another Inpe system, Prodes (Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite), and are released twice a year.

The problem should get worse in the coming months because of the arrival of the dry season. The highest marks recorded by Deter in the Cerrado, for example, were in May and June.

The three states that lead deforestation are Maranhão, Bahia and Tocantins. Together, they account for three-quarters of the cleared area.

In the Amazon, although the index has dropped in the partial data, the period of greatest felling is concentrated between June and October, due to the decrease in rainfall.

Still, in addition to combat operations, there is expectation about the date of publication of the PPCDam. The document received 510 contributions during the public consultation, which ended last week, which are now analyzed by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.