The size of the area deforested in the Amazon during the first four months of this year was 36% smaller than in the same period of 2022, according to monitoring by the Amazon Institute for Man and Environment (Imazon), an organization that since 1990 brings together researchers dedicated to study aspects related to the use and conservation of natural resources in the region. Between January and April of this year, the partial or total removal of the Amazon vegetation cover reached an area of 1,203 km². In the first quarter of last year, 1,884 km² were deforested. Despite the reduction of almost a third compared to the last period, the devastated area in the first four months of this year represents the third worst result in the efforts to preserve the biome since 2008. Considering only the last 16 years, the degraded area each first quarter of the year was higher not only in 2022, but also in 2021, when deforestation increased significantly, reaching 1,963 km². From the analysis of satellite monitoring images, Imazon researchers concluded that, in April of this year, the drop in deforestation reached 72%, falling from 1,197 km² in April 2022 to 336 km² in the same month of this year. “The reduction observed in April is positive, however, the deforested area [no mês] it was still the fourth largest since 2008 for the month”, highlights researcher Larissa Amorim, referring to the results for the same month recorded in the three previous years: 1,197 km² (2022), 778 km² (2021) and 529 km² (2020) . “This indicates that we need to implement emergency inspection, identification and punishment actions against illegal loggers in the most pressured territories, focusing on public forests that still do not have a defined use and on protected areas, especially with the arrival of the Amazonian summer, where historically deforestation tends to increase. increasing”, adds Larissa, in a note released by the institute. Although deforestation in the Amazon as a whole was lower in the first four months of this year, in the states of Roraima and Tocantins there was an increase in the degraded area. The “most critical situation”, according to Imazon, occurred in Roraima, where devastation increased by 73%, going from 63 km² from January to April 2022 to 107 km² in the first four months of this year. In Tocantins, deforestation growth was around 25%, going from 4 km² from January to April 2022 to 5 km² in the same period this year. Even registering a drop in deforestation in the last period, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Pará remain as the states with the largest areas deforested in the Amazon. From January to April this year, Mato Grosso devastated 400 km² of forest, Amazonas 272 km² and Pará 258 km², which represents 33%, 23% and 21% of the total in the region, respectively. That is, together, these states were responsible for 77% of the forest destroyed in the first four months of this year. Agência Brasil asked the government of Roraima and the Secretariat for the Environment and Water Resources of Tocantins to comment on the data released by Imazon and is awaiting responses.
Agência Brasil
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