MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: MapBiomas reports 32.4% decline in deforestation

In 2024, the Cerrado was the Brazilian biome with the largest deforested area for the second year running

Brazil saw a 32.4% decline in deforestation, with five out of six biomes experiencing reductions, MapBiomas -a network of NGOs, universities, and technology companies- reported this week. The Atlantic forest remained virtually stable -a 2% increase- while the Pantanal, Pampa, Cerrado, Amazon, and Caatinga all saw decreases.

A total of 1.24 million hectares were deforested, with 60,983 alerts issued. The Cerrado was the most affected biome, accounting for 52.4% of deforestation, while the Amazon followed closely behind.

Compared to 2023, deforestation in 2024 was down for the Pantanal (58.6%), the Pampa (42.1%), the Cerrado (41.2%), the Amazon (16.8%), and the Caatinga (13.4%), the study also showed.

Countrywide, the deforested area shrank 32.4%, with alerts plunging 26.9%. A total of 1,242,079 hectares were deforested in 2024, with 60,983 alerts registered.

In 2024, over 89% of the deforested area in the country was in the Amazon or the Cerrado. Savannah formations (Cerrado) were the most extensively deforested areas and accounted for 52.4% of all deforestation in Brazil. Forest formations accounted for another 43.7%.

One of the items monitored was the loss of native vegetation due to extreme climatic events, which is why the Atlantic forest has not kept pace with the other biomes, MapBiomas General Coordinator Tasso Azevedo noted.

“If we hadn't had the deforestation registered under extreme events, deforestation would have been 20 percent lower,” he pointed out.

“In recent years, plans have been devised to tackle deforestation across all biomes, which was not the case before. Another issue is that the states’ involvement in anti-deforestation efforts has increased, in terms of both work on embargoes and notices issued by the [national environmental authority] Ibama. The third factor is rural credit. There has been an increase in the use of these data for granting rural credit,” he added.

Despite the reductions, in 2024, the Cerrado was the Brazilian biome with the largest deforested area for the second year running, with over 652,000 hectares of native vegetation subtracted.

“This change occurred for the first time in 2023. Historically, deforestation has always been concentrated in the Amazon regions. This year, a reduction was reported in both biomes. However, deforestation still maintained the previous pattern, because it was greater in the cerrado than in the Amazon,” said MapBiomas' Technical Coordinator Marcos Rosa.

Also surveyed were the permits granted to suppress vegetation. In 2024, 43% of Brazil’s deforested area was under some form of authorization. The Cerrado was the biome with the greatest area covered by permits, with 66 percent of native vegetation suppressed with authorization. In Amazon, it was 14%.

In a broader analysis of the survey’s time series, which began in 2019, specialists found that Brazil has deforested 9,880,551 hectares in these six years, 67% of which was native vegetation in the Amazon region.

Deforestation due to pressure from agriculture is said to account for more than 97% of all the loss of native vegetation in Brazil in the last six years. (Source: Agencia Brasil)