The municipalities most affected by deforestation are those facing the worst quality of life in the Amazon. This is what a survey released on Monday (6) by the Amazon Institute for Man and Environment (Imazon) reveals, which analyzed the Social Progress Index (IPS) of the 722 municipalities in the region.
According to the study, the SPI for municipalities in the Amazon is 16% lower than the average for the country. Within that, the cities that register the greatest destruction present even worse scenarios.
The 20 municipalities in the region that had the largest areas of forest destroyed in the last three years had an average IPS of 52.38, 21% lower than the index in Brazil, which was 63.29. Rate also below the entire Amazon, which was 54.59.
“The IPS attests once again that deforestation has only generated poverty, social conflicts and inhibited the economic development of the Amazon”, says Beto Veríssimo, co-founder of Imazon and one of the leaders of the study.
The index includes the evaluation of 45 indicators in areas such as health, sanitation, housing, security, education, communication, gender equity and environmental quality. Created in 2013 and with international prestige, the index exclusively analyzes social and environmental variables, with scores ranging from 0 to 100, from worst to best.
Among the 20 cities that have been champions in deforestation, the most critical situation is that of Pacajá, in Pará, which had the lowest IPS and the second worst in the entire Amazon: 44.34.
The municipality, which has nearly 50,000 inhabitants, deforested 690 km² between 2018 and 2020, according to the National Institute for Space Research through the Prodes project, which carries out satellite monitoring of clear-cut deforestation in the Legal Amazon. With that, Pacajá was in seventh place in the ranking of those that most devastated the forest in the period.
Worsening social progress in three years
Social progress in the Amazon had a slight reduction compared to 2018, the year of the last edition of the IPS for the region. The index rose from 54.64 that year to 54.59 in 2021.
Among the 772 Amazon municipalities evaluated, almost half (49%) had a reduction in the index. Another 21% remained stable compared to 2018. Only 15 – 2% of the total – have IPS slightly above the national average.
If the Amazon were a country, it would be the 40th worst place in the IPS Global. With IPS of 54.59, it would be close to Cambodia, which scored 54.52.
The 20 municipalities that deforested the most in the Amazon in the last three years would still be lower in the world ranking if they formed a country, with an average IPS of 52.38. The score would be similar to that of Nigeria, which has the 30th worst place.
Reference: CNN Brasil
