Brazil advances a state of SP in pastures and loses almost a Maranhão in forest vegetation

In two decades, native vegetation (forest and countryside) has shrunk in Brazil, while economic activities have expanded their areas of operation, such as pasture with management for cattle and agricultural production.

The conclusions are from the study Environmental Economic Accounts of the Earth, released this Friday (7) by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

From 2000 to 2020, the area of ​​forest vegetation in the country decreased by 7.9%. In absolute values, the reduction was 320.7 thousand square kilometers, according to the survey. The lost area is comparable to the territory of Maranhão (329.7 thousand square kilometers).

The grassland vegetation, in turn, lost 10.6% of the area in the same period. The retraction was 192.5 thousand square kilometers, almost the territory of Paraná (199.3 thousand square kilometers).

As a result, the native vegetation (the sum of forest and grassland) showed a loss of 513,100 square kilometers in the two decades. The amount is equivalent to about 6% of the country’s territory, according to the IBGE.

On the other hand, the institute points out that the area destined for managed pasture grew 27.9% in the same period. The increase was 247 thousand square kilometers, a number comparable to the area of ​​the state of São Paulo (248.2 thousand square kilometers).

The agricultural area grew by 50.1%, or 229,900 square kilometers. The number exceeds the size of the state of Roraima (223.6 thousand square kilometers).

Another highlight of the research is the advancement of silviculture (forest cultivation), whose area increased by 71.4% from 2000 to 2020.

The increase reached 36 thousand square kilometers, according to the IBGE. It is more than the territory of Porto Velho (34.1 thousand square kilometers), capital of Rondônia.

According to the study, it is possible to observe a general trend of expansion of the agricultural area over the countryside vegetation, with conversion of 75.8 thousand square kilometers in the period, and of pasture with management over forest vegetation, with 167.5 thousand kilometers converted.

“What we see is an economic dynamic advancing over natural areas. It is the economic dynamic that moves pasture areas with management, agriculture and forestry”, points out Ivone Batista, manager of environmental accounts at IBGE.

Pará has greater expansion of pasture

According to the institute, Pará was the federation unit that registered the greatest expansion of the managed pasture area: 87,900 square kilometers.

Then came Mato Grosso (45,900 square kilometers), Rondônia (35,900 square kilometers), Maranhão (27,400 square kilometers) and Tocantins (18,700 square kilometers).

Pará also had the greatest reduction of native vegetation (sum of forest and grassland). The loss was 123,300 square kilometers.

Mato Grosso (97.8 thousand square kilometers), Rondônia (40.8 thousand square kilometers), Goiás (31.2 thousand square kilometers) and Tocantins (30.3 thousand square kilometers) appeared in the sequence.

The basis of the IBGE publication is the Monitoring of Land Cover and Use in Brazil. This analysis, also published by the agency, monitors, every two years, the dynamics of the territory, its occupation processes and its transformations, based on satellite images.

According to the monitoring, in the passage from 2018 to 2020, the highlighted period, 70 thousand square kilometers of the country had some change in land cover and use.

This corresponds to 0.7% of the national territory or an area equivalent to the states of Alagoas and Rio de Janeiro, combined.

Monitoring indicates that, from 2018 to 2020, the main land conversions were from managed pasture areas to agricultural areas (14.9 thousand square kilometers).

Other notable replacements were from mosaics of occupations in forest areas to pasture with management (12.3 thousand square kilometers) and from forest vegetation to mosaics of occupations in forest areas (11.8 thousand square kilometers).

Mosaics of occupations in forest areas are characterized by the mixed occupation of agricultural, pasture or forestry areas.

Jair Bolsonaro (PL) assumed the Presidency of the Republic in 2019. Since then, the government’s environmental policy has generated a series of criticisms of Brazil in the international sphere. The contestations gained strength from cases of fires and deforestation in the Amazon.