The country’s new agricultural frontier, in the region known as Matopiba – an acronym that refers to the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia -, concentrates half of the deforestation of the Cerrado detected by the satellites of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Released this Wednesday (7), from the Deforestation Detection System in Real Time (Deter), deforestation figures across the Cerrado show a 35% increase in vegetation loss, between January and May 2023, in comparison with the same period of 2022. There were 3,532 square kilometers (km²) of area deforested this year, against 2,612 km² last year. Compared to previous periods, this year’s deforestation is at least the worst since 2017. When comparing only the month of May, the increase in deforestation reached 83% last month compared to the same period in 2023. Deforestation in the Cerrado. – Deter/Disclosure The Deter system is a quick survey of alerts of evidence of changes in forest cover throughout the country, carried out by Inpe, as a way of guiding the work of environmental inspection. It is not often used to analyze short periods, such as month-to-month comparisons, because of the high volatility of cloud cover. According to information from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA), most of the deforestation, around 77%, was detected in rural properties with public registration in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), in which the government is able to identify the person responsible. in the area, whether a landowner or squatter in the process of land regularization. Another 15.9% were in rural settlements and a smaller portion, 4.2%, were in areas of environmental preservation. In relation to the municipalities that recorded the most deforestation in the Cerrado, São Desidério and Jaborandi, in western Bahia, stand out in the first positions. The two together represent more than 11% of the deforested area. The list also includes Balsas, in Maranhão, and other Bahian cities also known for the growth of agribusiness: Barreiras and Cocos. Altogether, of the municipalities with the greatest deforestation in the Cerrado this year, 10 are in Bahia, five in Maranhão, four in Piauí, three in Tocantins, one in Mato Grosso and one in Pará. In the Cerrado, 24 municipalities concentrate half of the deforestation – Deter/Disclosure Authorized deforestation Despite the increase, the federal government assesses that a good part of the deforestation in regions of the biome was authorized by environmental agencies, but the data still need to be checked. “Our estimate is that more than half of deforestation in the Cerrado is authorized by state environmental agencies. Our great challenge now is to synchronize this information and data to really identify what is authorized, in fact, to carry out more efficient inspection” , points out MMA’s secretary for Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Planning, André Lima. In the Cerrado, the legislation is more permissive with deforestation for agricultural activities. In the part of the biome that is not part of the states of the Legal Amazon, the mandatory legal reserve is 35% of the area. In other regions, this limit drops to 20%. Meanwhile, in the Amazon, the area that can be deforested with authorization is 20% of the rural property. Verification Now, the federal government must verify the legality of authorizations for vegetation suppression in these areas, whether there is a legal basis or not. “In the Cerrado, it is much easier for you to deforest legally. We have to check if the authorization was given within what the law establishes”, explains the executive secretary of the MMA, João Paulo Capobianco. Despite this, data from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) show an increase in inspections in recent months. 298 fines were issued and more than 180 areas, some with more than 10 thousand hectares, the equivalent of 10 thousand soccer fields, were embargoed by the agency, with the suspension of productive activities. The amount of fines, according to Ibama, grew 72% in the same period. Later this month, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change should start updating the Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Cerrado (PPCerrado). “The control of the Cerrado will be quite intense from now on”, reinforces André Lima, secretary of the folder. At the end of June, the government should hold a scientific seminar on how to reduce forest loss in the biome. One of the challenges is to involve state governments, in addition to various ministries, in the preparation of proposals that should guide the control of deforestation in the Cerrado over the coming years. While deforestation in the Cerrado advanced, in the Amazon the government recorded a 31% drop from January to May this year, compared to the same period last year.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©