The official deforestation rate in the Cerrado, the country’s second largest biome, registered a reduction for the first time in the last five years, reported the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), this Wednesday (6). According to the data, the suppression of native vegetation was 8,174 square kilometers (km²), in the period between August 2023 and July 2024.
The Inpe survey is carried out through the Satellite Deforestation Monitoring Project in the Cerrado (Prodes Cerrado), in which detection reaches an accuracy of 10 meters on clear cutting and deforestation due to progressive degradation, such as fires. Prodes monitoring is carried out from August of one year to July of the following year, between the driest seasons in the biome. The result reverses an increase in deforestation in the Cerrado recorded for five consecutive years, since the period 2018/2019.
Around 76% of this deforestation remains concentrated in four states: Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, states that form the acronym Matopiba, the main agricultural frontier in the Cerrado today. In these states, however, Prodes recorded a significant drop in deforestation, comparing 2023/2024 with the immediately previous period. In Bahia, for example, the reduction was 63.3%, followed by 15.1% in Maranhão, 10.1% in Piauí and 9.6% in Tocantins.
The reduction in deforestation in the Cerrado made it possible, according to the federal government, for a volume of 41.8 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas that most contributes to global warming, to stop being emitted into the atmosphere.
“The data we have just seen here, of the drop in deforestation in the Cerrado, which for many would be impossible, is starting to gain momentum more and more, including with the participation of the private sector”, celebrated the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, during the announcement of the results to the press, at an event at Palácio do Planalto.
For civil society entities, the level of deforestation is still very high.
“Despite the downward trend confirmed by Prodes, the destruction numbers still remain at high levels when compared to the historical series. To a large extent, deforestation in the Cerrado occurs on private properties, which highlights the urgent need for greater engagement by the productive sector. The economic pressure on this biome, mainly due to the expansion of activities related to commoditiescombined with environmental legislation that is still fragile and ineffective, makes the situation even more critical”, warned Daniel Silva, a conservation specialist at WWF-Brazil.
Pact with states
At this Wednesday’s event, the Minister of the Environment also signed a pact between the federal government and the state governments of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. The objective is to reinforce joint action to prevent and combat deforestation and fires in the region, in an articulation that has been built since March.
According to the MMA, the partnership “seeks to increase collective action to identify and apply sanctions for illegal deforestation in rural properties in the region, in addition to improving rules and processes to ensure transparency, information sharing and formulation of a strategy for water conservation and of native vegetation forest assets in the different ecosystems of the Cerrado in Matopiba”.
The federal government also attributes the drop measured by Prodes to the intensification of inspection actions in the Cerrado and also in the Legal Amazon. From January 2023 to October 2024, the average number of fines applied by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) for deforestation and illegal burning was 98% higher than that recorded from January 2019 to December 2022. In Cerrado, the increase was 20% per year.
Amazon
In addition to the fall in the Cerrado, the reduction in deforestation was also verified in the Legal Amazonfrom August 2023 to July 2024, according to Prodes. The drop reached 30.6% compared to the previous year (2022/2023).
As a result, deforestation reached its lowest percentage in 15 years, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA). In terms of deforested area, the value now measured in the Amazon is the lowest since 2013.
