Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest continues to plunge
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon — Earth’s largest rainforest — is on a continued downward trajectory, according to data released today by Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE.
INPE’s deforestation alert system, known as DETER, indicates that forest clearing in Brazil’s section of the Amazon totaled 563 square kilometers in August 2023. This is a 66% decline — equating to nearly 1,100 square kilometers — compared to the same month the previous year.
Deforestation detected by DETER for the first eight months of 2023 amounted to 3,712 square kilometers. This is a 48% drop compared to the previous year and the lowest figure since 2018.
12-month-moving average deforestation alert data from Imazon’s SAD system and INPE’s DETER system.
Imazon is a Brazilian NGO that independently monitors deforestation.
Area of deforestation detected by INPE’s DETER system, Jan 1-Aug 31 since 2009 (sq km)
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has seen a decrease for five consecutive months. This follows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to curb the escalating forest loss in the region. Notably, during Lula’s earlier tenure in the 2000s, the annual rate of deforestation had also declined significantly.
Brazil is set to release its annual assessment of deforestation for the year ending July 31 in the coming weeks. This figure serves as the standard baseline for comparing deforestation rates.
Since the early 1970s, the Brazilian Amazon has lost just under 20% of its forest cover.
Scientists express concern that the persistent deforestation, combined with forest degradation and the impacts of climate change, may put large areas of the rainforest at risk of transitioning to a drier, savanna-like ecosystem. Such a shift would have severe consequences for the region’s carbon storage, biodiversity, rainfall patterns, and the well-being of local communities.
The author of this article, Rhett Butler, is the founder of Mongabay.com, a conservation news web portal that reports on environmental science, energy and green design.
This article was originally published on 8 September 2023 on Mongabay.com under the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) Creative Commons license.
Cover photo by Renan Bomtempo sourced from Pexels.com.