From August 2021 to July 2022, the deforestation in the Cerrado biome, the Brazilian savanah, increased by 25.29%, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In all, an area of 10,688.73 km² was deforested.
Besides the deforested area passing the 10 thousand km² milestone, the data presented today show that in 2022 there was a 25% increase in the devastation of the biome compared to the previous year, when the annual rate reached 8,531.44 km². This is the third consecutive year of increased destruction in the Cerrado, a situation never seen since the monitoring started in 2000. During the Bolsonaro government, deforestation in the biome accumulated an area of 33,444 km2, more than six times the area of Brasilia, the country’s capital.
“We need to change the trajectory of Cerrado deforestation urgently, after 3 straight years of increased destruction. Preserving the biome is fundamental to maintaining the waters that irrigate both commodity production and family agriculture, and fill hydroelectric dam reservoirs across the country. Cutting down the Cerrado is acting against the agribusiness, against the fight against hunger and inflation – less Cerrado means more expensive food and electricity”, says Edegar de Oliveira Rosa, WWF-Brazil’s Conservation and Restoration director.
In 2022, the states with the greatest destruction were those in the region known as Matopiba, reaching 71% of the total deforested in the biome. The state of Maranhão leads the devastation ranking with 2,833.9 km², 27% of the total deforested in the biome. Next come Tocantins (2,127.52 km²) and Bahia (1,427.86 km²), along with Piauí (1,189 km²).
The disclosure of the figures comes just one week after the approval of the European anti-deforestation law, which prohibits the entry into the European market of commodities produced in deforested forest areas after December 31, 2020. The law does not include ecosystems such as the Cerrado and the concern is that, by restricting production with deforestation in the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest and the Chaco, the most typically forested biomes in South America, the new regulation may cause “leakage” of deforestation to the Brazilian savannah, increasing its destruction.
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