Deforestation in the Cerrado increases by almost 20% in 2022, according to an institute report

Cerrado deforestation was nearly 20% higher in 2022 than the previous year, according to data from the Cerrado Deforestation Alert System (SAD Cerrado). The tool, which works through artificial intelligence and satellite images from the European Space Agency, was developed by Ipam (Institute for Environmental Research in the Amazon), in partnership with the MapBiomas network and with Lapig (Laboratory for Image Processing and Geoprocessing). ), from UFG (Federal University of Goiás).

According to the tool, last year, the deforestation recorded in the biome was 815,532 hectares, while in 2021, the SAD estimate is that 691,296 hectares of the Cerrado will have been deforested in Brazil.

The survey also points out that around 65% of the deforested area in the Cerrado took place in the Savannah. Vegetation, according to Ipam, suffered the most in the biome in 2022.

Deforestation in December

According to information from the tool, 83,998 hectares of the Cerrado were deforested in December of last year alone. The number represents an increase of 88.8% in relation to the same month of the previous year, when the system identified the deforestation of 44,486 hectares of the biome.

Cerrado deforestation sites

According to Ipam, around 80% of deforestation in the Cerrado in 2022 took place on private properties. The remainder is in land void (13.5%), where there are no defined governance mechanisms, in addition to settlements (4.5%) and protected areas (3.6%).

In an interview with CNN MapBiomas researcher Julia Shimbo explains that there is a lack of incentive to protect the biome.

“We only have 8% of the Cerrado protected. And most of it is inside private areas. Here comes the importance of the incentive, right? (…) We need to have a dialogue with both the public and private sectors”.

states and municipalities

Maranhão was, for the second consecutive time, the federative unit where there was the highest record of deforestation in the Cerrado. According to SAD, 227,822.08 hectares of the biome were cut down in the state last year.

Next come the following states:

• Tocantins (171,348.75 ha);
• Bahia (84,052.17ha);
• Goiás (78,148.41 ha)
• Piauí (76,617.64 ha).

Through the tool, it is also possible to search the Brazilian cities that had the highest levels of deforestation in the Cerrado. In this case, for the second consecutive year, Balsas (MA), where 24,581.54 hectares of the biome were deforested, was the city that most suffered from the deforestation of the biome. The other four municipalities where there was more deforestation in the Cerrado, according to SAD, are:

• São Desidério (MA): 17,187.6 hectares;
• Alto Parnaíba (MA): 11,112.41 hectares;
• Formosa do Rio Preto (BA): 10,486.19 hectares;
• Correntina (BA): 10,308.05 hectares.

Matopiba

About 60% of the deforestation of the Cerrado in Brazil takes place in Matopiba, where most of the native vegetation of the Cerrado is concentrated. The name of the region, known for being the main agricultural frontier in the biome, is an acronym for the states that make up a territory formed by Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia.

The MapBiomas researcher explains that a series of factors contribute to deforestation in the region, such as the weakening of inspection bodies, the lack of public policies to encourage conservation of the Cerrado, in addition to the need for incentives to guarantee good practices in agriculture.

“That we can improve the use and management of the areas already opened. No need to open to new areas. We no longer need to deforest the cerrado. We need to manage well where we have already cleared and deforested”, he says.

thick

The Cerrado covers about 25% of the entire national territory and is the second largest vegetation formation in Brazil.

According to ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation and Biodiversity), the biome is present in the states of Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso do Sul, southern Mato Grosso, western Minas Gerais, Federal District, western Bahia, southern Maranhão, west of Piauí and in parts of the State of São Paulo.

It is still possible to find portions of Cerrado in Paraná and in regions within other biomes, such as the Amazon Rainforest.