Deforestation in the Amazon: first semester was the most severe in 15 years, says Imazon

This destruction is the result of successive records, registered monthly by the Deforestation Alert System (SAD) (Reproduction)

July 29, 2022

15:07

Iury Lima – Amazon Agency

VILHENA (RO) – The deforestation that occurred in June of this year, in the Amazon, sealed the worst semester of the last 15 years for the biome. It is as if the capital of Tocantins, Palmas, the ninth largest city in Brazil, was removed from the map twice, because the deforestation spread, in these first six months, over 4,789 km².

This destruction is the result of successive records, registered monthly by the Deforestation Alert System (SAD) of the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), such as the one registered last month: 1,429 km² in only 30 days; an increase of 54% when compared to the same period in 2021.

“And this increase, unfortunately, is linked to a series of bad consequences, such as the worsening of climate change, which contributes to unbalance in the rainfall regime throughout Brazil, as well as the emission of greenhouse gases that causes an increase in global temperature”, warned Imazon Researcher Bianca Santos to the report. 

Pará, Amazonas, and Mato Grosso led the advance of deforestation last month (Bruno Kelly/Reproduction)

Accumulated deforestation

Besides this being the worst record of destruction of the Amazon Forest since 2008, the accumulated deforestation in the first half of the year is almost 20% higher than that recorded in the same period of the previous year. Imazon points out that, even at that time, the Amazon was already suffering from “an explosion of deforestation”.

The value registered in the first six months of 2022 is the highest of the historical series (Source: Imazon | Art: Mateus Moura/AMAZON AGENCY)

In the first half of this year alone, the Amazon lost an area larger than Florianópolis, compared to the devastation that occurred in the first half of 2021, when 4,014 km² of forest were cut down. In 2020, there were 2,582 km². The tendency to increase is so evident that the value registered now, in 2022, is four times more than what was devastated at the beginning of this historical series.

Devastating June

June, alone, was also devastating. Deforestation advanced over 1,429 km² last month alone; an area similar to the greater São Paulo area. With this scope, the exploitation of forest resources increased 54% compared to June 2021. 

The devastation that occurred in June is almost equivalent to an entire city of São Paulo (Source: Imazon | Art: Mateus Moura/AMAZON AGENCY)

Just like the first semester, the Amazon also had the worst June in the last 15 years. Santos explains that the most critical regions, during that month, were in Pará, Amazonas and Mato Grosso. “In Amazonas, the most critical situation happens in the south of the state, mainly on the border with Acre and Rondônia, where there is an agricultural hub known as Amacro”, detailed the researcher when citing the area known for being a deforestation frontier. 

“The municipalities in this region, such as Apuí, for example, have frequently appeared in the monthly rankings of those that deforest the forest the most,” she further said. “In the State of Pará, which led deforestation in June, the situation is even more worrying, because much of this deforestation happened in protected areas, such as Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands”, she added. 

The Imazon researcher, Bianca Santos, alerts to the risks generated by deforestation to traditional communities (Imazon/Reproduction)

The Apyterewa Indigenous Land (TI), with more than 700 thousand hectares and a population of almost 800 people, concentrated 52% of all deforestation caught by satellite inside the TIs, in the whole biome: 1,400 soccer fields of untouched forest were cut down, according to Imazon. The territory is in Pará, which destroyed 497 km², or 35% of all that was logged a month ago. 

Below Pará are Amazonas, with 29% of the destruction and, Mato Grosso, with 13%. The latter has remained since October 2021 among the three states with the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon, according to the institute’s surveys. Amapá and Tocantins did not appear on the list.

Mato Grosso is the record holder in deforestation since October last year (Source: Imazon | Art: Mateus Moura/AMAZON AGENCY)

It could still get worse

Despite the sad indicators, everything can get even worse, according to researcher Bianca Santos. “Unfortunately, the tendency for the second semester is that deforestation will continue at an accelerated pace in the Amazon, because we still have another four months of the dry period ahead of us, which is known as the Amazon summer. This happens because the deforestation of the forest ends up being easier with the reduction of rainfall and, also, the fires”, she pointed out. 

Besides the climate, now more favorable for environmental crimes, she also indicates the electoral race in October as an aggravating factor. “Another factor that also contributes to the tendency for deforestation to increase in the second half of the year is the elections, when, historically, enforcement actions are usually reduced”, said the researcher.

For Larissa Amorim, also a researcher at the institute, there is also a third negative component: the lack of signaling from the competent bodies that there will be tougher actions to combat environmental crimes in the last six months of the year. “This works as an incentive for illegal deforesters to continue operating in the region, mainly through the process of land grabbing”, says the specialist.

Larissa Amorim demands a position from the inspection agencies in the second semester of 2022 (Imazon/Reproduction)

To stop the destruction of the largest tropical forest on the planet, which is so important for regulating the global climate, it is necessary to strengthen the inspection agencies, Santos warns. “It is also necessary to guarantee the application of punishment to illegal deforesters, using satellite images as evidence in environmental crime cases”, she concluded.