Deforestation in the Atlantic Forest falls 42% in the country in the first five months of the year, says report

The data, consolidated on the MapBiomas Alerta platform, shows that the area deforested between January and May this year was 7.088 hectares, compared to 12.166 hectares registered in the same period last year.

“The new government is still structuring itself, organizing itself, we did not expect such a rapid reduction. This is the first highlight, it is good news. The second is that we must still be cautious in relation to this data, it is still partial data, we have to observe it throughout the year to be sure that we are really on a downward trend and a very significant drop in deforestation ”, said the executive director of Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto.

He made the reservation that the compiled data account for the limits of the biome established by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), excluding deforestation occurring in fragments of the Atlantic Forest located in the Cerrado and Caatinga territories. The so-called enclaves in these two biomes correspond to around 5% of the country's total Atlantic Forest, but they are regions that are experiencing a rise in deforestation. Deforestation in these enclaves is monitored, but the data is not yet ready, according to the director.

The entities that prepare the bulletin assess that the drop is notable in most states, especially those that had the largest deforested area in 2022, such as Minas Gerais, Bahia, Paraná and Santa Catarina. In these locations, the drop in deforestation rates were 47%, 43%, 54% and 46%, respectively.

Guedes Pinto highlights the situation in Santa Catarina and Paraná, where the predominant biome is the Atlantic Forest. “These are two states that tend to have a lot of deforestation, they are always among the five states with the most deforestation in Brazil in the biome. And there we observed a very large [deforestation reduction], which in fact indicates that we have a significant reduction trend,” he said.

In the states of Espírito Santo, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Sul, there was a small reduction in deforestation, which is considered stable.

Rio Grande do Norte, São Paulo, Sergipe and Alagoas were the only states that registered an increase. However, when their deforested areas are added together, they represent only around 12% of the total.

In relation to the number of deforestation alerts in the same period, the drop was 14%, from 2.507 in 2022 to 2.156 in 2023. MapBiomas' technical coordinator, Marcos Rosa, assesses that the contrast indicates a change in the profile of deforestation in the biome.

“Devastation in areas smaller than 3 hectares suffered practically no reduction, while in larger areas, especially those above 15 hectares, there was a significant decrease in deforestation. This may be directly related to the increase in inspection carried out by the states, the change in stance in the federal government and Ibama [Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources] and the restrictions on financial credit for properties with unauthorized deforestation”, he said. Marcos Rosa, in a note.

(With Brazil Agency)

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What is the Atlantic Forest?

The Atlantic Forest is a biome that covers around 15% of the Brazilian territory, extending along the country's Atlantic coast. This biome is characterized by its great diversity of fauna and flora species, being considered one of the richest in biodiversity in the world. However, the Atlantic Forest is also one of the most threatened biomes on the planet, with less than 10% of its original coverage still preserved.