- Brazil’s national space research institute INPE reported a third straight monthly drop in Amazon deforestation in September, but its data also showed a sharp increase in the area affect by fires.
- According to INPE’s deforestation alert system, deforestation in the “legal Amazon” during the month of September amounted to 964 square kilometers, down 34% from September 2019. That follows a 27% decline in July and a 21% decline in August relative to a year ago when deforestation in the region hit the highest level since 2008.
- However the reported decline in recent months does not match the trend reported by Imazon, an independent NGO, which reported increases of more than 30% in July and August, but hasn’t published September analysis yet. The discrepancy could be due to the different methodologies used by the two systems, though normally INPE and Imazon’s data show strong correlation.
- Since January, INPE has reported more than 7,000 square kilometers of deforestation in the Amazon, down 10% from the same period last year, but the second highest on record since 2008.
Brazil’s national space research institute INPE reported a third straight monthly drop in Amazon deforestation in September, but its data also showed a sharp increase in the area affect by fires.
According to INPE’s deforestation alert system, deforestation in the “legal Amazon” during the month of September amounted to 964 square kilometers, down 34% from September 2019. That figure follows a 27% decline in July and a 21% decline in August relative to a year ago when deforestation in the region hit the highest level since 2008.
Since January, INPE has reported more than 7,000 square kilometers of deforestation in the Amazon, down 10% from the same period last year, but the second highest on record since 2008.
However the reported decline in recent months does not match the trend reported by Imazon, an independent NGO, which reported increases of more than 30% in July and August, but hasn’t published September analysis yet.
The discrepancy could be due to the different methodologies used by the two systems, though normally INPE and Imazon’s data show strong correlation.
INPE’s September data shows a huge jump in burn scars, reflecting the fires that have raged through vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest in recent weeks. According to INPE, 9,924 square kilometers of burn scars were detected during the month, nearly two-and-a-half times what was registered a year ago and the highest on record since INPE released its new monitoring system in August 2016.
According to separate analysis by Amazon Conservation’s MAAP Initiative, at least 825 major forest fires have burned 21,000 square kilometers in the Brazilian Amazon since the end of May. 99% of these fires have been illegal and 13% have burned in Indigenous territories.
Major fires in Brazil in 2020
Fire data from MAAP’s Amazon Fire Monitoring App is updated in real time and will include data from after Sept. 21, 2020
Cartography by Willie Shubert in collaboration with InfoAmazonia.org
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been significantly higher since Jair Bolsonaro assumed office in January 2019. Since then, deforestation reported by INPE’s alert system has amounted to 16,231 square kilometers, more twice the area lost in the preceding equivalent period. During his campaign, Bolsonaro pledged to forgive illegal deforesters of past crimes, open up large areas of the Amazon to mining and agribusiness, and curb environmental law enforcement.
Dramatic fires in August and September 2019 provoked global outcry over the situation in the Amazon, including sharp criticism of Bolsonaro from business leaders, trading partners, and religious figures. Fearing the cancellation of a long-negotiated trade deal with the E.U. and other sanctions against Brazilian companies, Bolsonaro responded by sending in the army to quell illegal fire-setting and deforestation. But environmentalists complained at the time that he failed to take policy action to address the underlying drivers of the issues.
When deforestation and fires returned at the start of the dry season in 2020, Bolsonaro again called on the army to battle fires, while dismissing demands for policy measures and blaming environmentalists and Indigenous peoples for the blazes.
In response to these developments, as well as growing evidence that the Amazon is rapidly drying, scientists have become increasingly outspoken about the risk that the large parts of the Amazon rainforest could transition to savanna. Such a shift could have substantial impacts on rainfall patterns, affecting the availability of freshwater across much of southern South America, including the continent’s agricultural heartland and largest cities.
Tipping from rainforest to savanna would also trigger the release of vast amount of carbon currently locked in the region’s trees and vegetation, accelerating climate change, and diminish its famed biodiversity.
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