October 20, 2022

08:10

Iury Lima – Amazon Agency

VILHENA (RO) – The last four years have been the most devastating for the Amazon biodiversity, according to new data released by the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon). Last September alone, the forest lost 1,126 km² to deforestation and the accumulated figure since January has exceeded 9 thousand km²; a wound equivalent to eight times the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

The level, besides being the worst in the last 15 years, reveals that this is the fifth consecutive record for the accumulated first nine months of each year, since the indicators for the same period began to exceed the average of 3,500 km² as of 2018, generating great concern to researchers.

“By the current data, the likely consequence of this rate of increase is going to be another negative record by the end of the year 2022. And that should already worry us a lot, since last year we already had the largest devastated area in the last 14 years”, alerts Imazon researcher Bianca Santos.

Between January and September 2008, when the institute started monitoring the forest, a little more than 2 thousand km² of forest were lost to environmental crime. From there, there was a reduction in these rates until 2013. It went up again in 2014 and slowed down in 2017. However, the damage became increasingly greater, starting the following year, and remains on an alarming growth trend.

Santos points out that the high levels of devastation threaten not only the fauna, but also the traditional peoples and communities of the Legal Amazon and human life, in general, “since the cut down forest impacts on the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely responsible for climate change and extreme events, besides not generating any development for the region, as many studies have already pointed out”, he explained to the report.

Record-breaking States

Pará, Amazonas and Acre lead the destruction ranking. Together they were responsible for almost 80% of the destruction that occurred in September this year. Almost half of the deforestation of the whole Amazon region, in that month, was observed in Pará: more than 500 km². Acre, on the other hand, despite having deforested less than its neighboring states, was notable for the advance of illegal logging in protected areas.

“Despite being a smaller state in area, Acre has been occupying the first positions among the states that deforest the Legal Amazon the most”, says Raissa Fernanda Ferreira, also an Imazon researcher.

“This state was responsible for 140 square kilometers of deforestation, and has advanced even in areas that are protected by law, especially the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, which concentrated 18% of all deforestation that occurred in the state, leading the ranking of Conservation Units that were deforested the most in September”, added the specialist.

In the destruction target, besides the Extractive Reserves (Resex) and the Conservation Units (UCs), there are also the Indigenous Lands (TIs), as was the case of the Apyterewa territory, in Pará, which, alone, suffered almost half of the devastation detected last month, in limits destined to native peoples.

Imazon also points out that the cutting down of forests is more expressive in areas that have not yet been specifically designated, which makes them more vulnerable to the action of land grabbers. This happens, according to the institute, especially in the municipalities that are part of the ‘Amacro’, an agricultural frontier between Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia.

Accelerated degradation

Imazon’s new alert also reveals that it was not only deforestation that increased. The degradation of the Amazon Forest, which occurs when there is logging or when part of the vegetation is affected by fire, has also skyrocketed.

The increase is 359%, five times more than in September 2021, and almost all of this environmental damage, 96%, was caused by the states of Mato Grosso and Pará.

Bianca Santos warns that a large part of the forest degradation detected last month was due to the occurrence of fires that often start “as a cleaning up of an area”. “Considering that we are in a drier period for the Amazon, this practice, unfortunately common, becomes even more dangerous, with the risk of fire spreading to the forest, which is what has been occurring in many cases”, lamented the researcher.

“It is also worth remembering that these burnings are harmful in countless ways, because besides increasing gas emissions, they also offer a risk to public health and there are already several studies that associate the smoke from the burnings with respiratory problems, besides not being limited to the Amazon population, since these particles can travel for miles and reach regions all over Brazil”, she also said.

For the researcher Raissa Ferreira, effective inspections are lacking. “To reduce these numbers, it is necessary to intensify enforcement actions, especially in areas that have a critical level of forest clearing, in addition to identifying those responsible and carrying out embargoes within these illegally cleared areas”, she suggested. “It is also important that the government leaders, whether federal or state, position themselves in favor of environmental agendas and that they reaffirm their commitment to the preservation of the environment, the traditional forest peoples and communities”, he concluded.