Deforestation in biomes in Brazil reaches 108,463 km2 in five years

With increasing annual deforestation rates, Brazil has lost 108,463 km² of its biomes from 2017 to 2021 — this number is equivalent to little more than the area of ​​Pernambuco.

This is what the data from Prodes Brasil, the new program by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) that starts monitoring deforestation in all the country’s biomes, show. The new information was released on Wednesday (14).

So far, Prodes has only presented annual deforestation rates for native vegetation in the Amazon and the cerrado, whose data was also made public this Wednesday.

In the new monitoring by Inpe there are data for Pantanal, Atlantic forest, caatinga and pampa from 2017. For the previous period, there is an aggregated felling estimate.

The expansion of monitoring carried out by the institute was possible thanks to funds from the Amazon Fund in 2018. The following year, the first of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, the billionaire fund was paralyzed by actions of the president and the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, elected this year as federal deputy for São Paulo.

First, Bolsonaro, with a decree, extinguished an endless number of collegiate bodies, which affected Cofa (Guiding Committee of the Amazon Fund) and ended up paralyzing the actions of the Amazon Fund. Later, without providing details, Salles stated that there were problems with the fund’s contracts, which undergo annual audits.

Finally, when negotiations for a resumption began, Salles sought to change the fund’s governance and give greater decision-making weight to the federal government. The idea did not please Norway and Germany, the fund’s main donors, and the negotiations did not advance.

With the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the presidential election, the two countries showed themselves willing to return to discussing the Amazon Fund, which could win new donors.

Going back to data from the new INPE program, in the Atlantic Forest, for example, the most devastated biome in the country and where most of the Brazilian population is concentrated, only 27.8% of the vegetation remains.

One observation is valid for this biome. If you frequently follow deforestation data, you must have already seen data from a partnership between the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica and Inpe, which indicate that just over 12% of this forest remains standing. The difference lies in the more restrictive methodology of this follow-up, which considers only more mature forest remnants.

The Pantanal, on the other hand, still has about 77% of native vegetation, according to data from Prodes Pantanal.

Data for 2022 should come out in the first half of next year.

With greater detail on deforestation in the country, the possibilities related to the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions expand. In Brazil, the biggest source of emissions is deforestation, especially in the Amazon, which has been pushing up national emissions data and jeopardizing Brazil’s international commitment to reduce gas emissions. Livestock also plays a significant role in the country’s emissions.

Brazil has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, with a reduction, in 2025, of 37% of greenhouse gases, compared to 2005 emissions, and with a reduction, in 2030, of 50% of gases, also compared to 2005.

In the Brazilian climate commitment, however, there is a “climate pedal”. In general lines, the country changed the calculation basis —that is, the emissions made in 2005—, but it did not increase the cut percentage enough to make its climate goal more ambitious.

Brazil’s first NDC (the acronym for nationally determined contribution) dates back to 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed. There, Brazil undertook to reduce, by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions by 43% in relation to 2005. With the data available at that time, the country would arrive in 2030 with emissions of around 1.208 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (basically , a sum of the gases that cause global warming).

With the evolution in methodologies to measure emitted gases, the 2005 data increased. Initially, the target was maintained at a 43% reduction, thus giving rise to the “climate pedal”.

During COP26, the Bolsonaro government announced the promise of a 50% reduction in emissions that will lead Brazil, in 2030, to emissions of 1,281 gigatons of CO_twoe (carbon dioxide equivalent). In any case, the country remains without advancing in its climate ambition.