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Beyond deforestation: 38% of the Amazon Rainforest is affected by other forms of degradation

Deforested and degrated areas near Mura indigenous land

Credit: Alberto César Araújo/Amazônia Real

30 Jan 23

Beyond deforestation: 38% of the Amazon Rainforest is affected by other forms of degradation

More than one third of the Amazon Rainforest is already affected by drought, fires, logging and the” edge effects”, according to a study published in the scientific journal Science.

Authored by 35 Brazilian and foreign researchers, the study differentiates between deforestation and degradation. While, in the former, the forest undergoes major changes to make way for a new use – for example, an area that is burned to turn into pasture – degradation is differentiated by involving more changes in forest cover and by not having the objective of transforming the use of that land.

Degradation includes fires; drought (intensified by climate change); selective logging (legal or illegal; “selective” because some commercially interesting trees are removed, leaving others standing); and edge effects (changes in forests near deforested areas, thus a direct consequence of deforestation).

The study estimates that 38% of the Amazon Rainforest is now affected by some type of degradation. “The degraded area in the Amazon and the carbon emissions from degradation are equal or even greater than those from deforestation,” said study leader David Lapola, a researcher at the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture at Unicamp (State University of Campinas) and a doctorate from the University of Kassel, Germany, to BBC News Brazil.

 

Sources:

BBC

Forest fires grow 14% in 2022, report says

The majority of the fires happened in Cerrado and Amazon regions

Credit: Christian Braga / Greenpeace

27 Jan 23

Forest fires grow 14% in 2022, report says

In 2022, Brazil lost to fire more than 163 thousand km² of forests, the equivalent to the state of Acre (152,581 km²). The area represents an increase of 14% compared to the 142.8 thousand km² recorded in the previous year. The data are from the Fire Monitor, from the Mapbiomas platform in partnership with IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute).

Most of the fires were registered in the Amazon and in the Cerrado (together, the two biomes have 95% of the destroyed area). The fires were concentrated in countryside and savannah regions (43%), formations that are found in the Cerrado, while 25.4% of the affected area was pastureland.

Considering only December, the increase in fires was 93%, compared with the same month in 2021: there were 3,327 km² of burned area last year, compared with 1,748 km² in 2021.

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Amazon forest fires reach new record in August and smoke invades Northern Brazil

Smoke covered the skies throughout the Amazon

Credit: INPE/via G1

5 Sep 22

Amazon forest fires reach new record in August and smoke invades Northern Brazil

The Amazon registered the worst number of fires for the month of August in the last 12 years, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). There were 33,116 fires, the highest number since 2010, when 45,018 fires were recorded. This is the 4th consecutive year of Bolsonaro’s admistration that the volume of fires in the period is above the 28,000 mark.

On Amazon Day, celebrated September 5, the smoke caused by the fires spread over the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, Mato Grosso and Pará, covering an extension of 5 million km², reported INPE.

From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, the largest area in the last 15 years for the period, according to data from the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon). “The uncontrolled burning observed in the last four years is closely associated with an increase in deforestation and forest degradation in this period,” stated Mariana Napolitano, Science Manager at WWF-Brazil, heard by G1.

 

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Devastation in the Amazon: Smoke engulfs the region as deforestation breaks new record

The sky of Manaus covered in smoke from the fires in the Amazon region

Credit: Alberto César Araújo/Amazônia Real

21 Aug 22

Devastation in the Amazon: Smoke engulfs the region as deforestation breaks new record

Illegal fires in the south of Amazonas and southwest of Pará states have compromised the air quality of several cities in the region, where a toxic cloud of smoke has taken over the skies. Among the municipalities hit were Altamira and Novo Progresso in Pará, and the capital of Amazonas, Manaus. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in August, 16,088 fires were registered in the Amazon.

The Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors the biome via the Deforestation Alert System (SAD), pointed to the record devastation recorded in the last 12 months. From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, an area equivalent to seven times the city of São Paulo. This is the largest deforested area in the last 15 years for the period.

For the Institute, the data is especially alarming, given the global climate scenario. “The increase in deforestation directly threatens the lives of traditional peoples and communities and the maintenance of biodiversity in the Amazon. In addition to contributing to greater carbon emissions in a period of climate crisis,” said Bianca Santos, a researcher at Imazon.

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Deforestation rises 8% in the Amazon in July

The first semester had records in all months in 2002

Credit: Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama

1 Aug 22

Deforestation rises 8% in the Amazon in July

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) indicates that the number of fires in the Amazon biome increased 8% in July, when compared to the same time frame from last year. A total of 5,373 fires were detected by satellite in the region. From January to July, the total was 12,906, an increase of 13% compared to the first seven months of 2021.

Sources:

UOL

Operation "Guardians of the Biome" squad is attacked in the state of Pará

The Jamanxim National Forest

Credit: Pará Government/Courtesy

26 Jul 22

Operation “Guardians of the Biome” squad is attacked in the state of Pará

Agents of the Operation “Guardians of the Biome”, led by the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, were attacked in the Jamanxim National Forest (Flona do Jamanxim), in the southwest of the state of Pará. The workers had their tent set on fire, but no one was injured.

The crime happened two days after two people were arrested for illegal deforestation inside the protected area.

The Operation was launched on June 21st to fight forest fires in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará, Piauí, Rondônia, Roraima, Rio Grande do Sul and Tocantins. The action will continue until January 2023, with an investment of R$ 77 million. The work involves 1.8 thousand agents of the National Force and more than 3 thousand workers from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and from Ibama, in addition to firemen.

 

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Forest burning doubles in the Amazon and Cerrado fires increase by 35%

Firest in the Cerrado are at their highest since 1998, when the measurements started

Credit: Agência Fapesp

2 Jun 22

Forest burning doubles in the Amazon and Cerrado fires increase by 35%

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) released on June 1st showed that environmental devastation continues to grow in the country. The Amazon, with 2,287 outbreaks of forest fires, had the highest number of fires since 2004 and was 96% higher than last year.

In the Cerrado, the increase was 35% compared to May 2021, with 3,578 fires, the highest number since 1998, when measurements started. The tendency, according to specialists, is to get worse, since the most intense fire season has not yet arrived. Most of the burning, according to scholars, is done by the agricultural sector.

 

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Lack of resources threatens to leave ICMBio without 3,000 temps during fire season

Lack of employees could lead to record in fires.

Credit: Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama/CC BY-SA 2.0

30 Mar 22

Lack of resources threatens to leave ICMBio without 3,000 temps during fire season

An internal document from the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute (ICMBio), responsible for the management of parks and conservation units, indicates that the agency is without resources to maintain the 3,0000 temporary employees who work directly in support operations to the agency. The General Coordination of Finance and Revenue sent the alert, to which the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo had access, to the institute’s board of directors.

The ICMBio has only 1,300 fixed employees and depends on temporary contracts to protect Brazil’s Conservation Units, especially during the fire season, which starts in May and lasts until November.

Questioned by the report, the agency said that “there are no budget cuts planned” and that it will keep “the same number of temporary agents hired in the federal conservation units”.

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Deforestation in the Amazon increases 22% in February and sets a new record

Área desmatada é quase do tamanho da cidade de Natal (RN)

Crédito: Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama/via Agência Senado

8 Mar 22

Deforestation in the Amazon increases 22% in February and sets a new record

Deforestation alerts in the Amazon had a 22% increase in the month of February compared to the same period in the last year, as partial data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) points out. By February 25th, 149.88 km² were deforested, the second largest area for the month of february since 2016.

This is the second consecutive record of devastation of the biome in 2022. In January, the Amazon had 430.44 km² of its area with deforestation alerts, a number four times higher when compared to January 2021, and the worst since 2016, also according to INPE.

Sources:
Areas burned down during "Day of the Fire" are now illegaly occupied by soybean fields

Em 2019, incêndios criminosos foram orquestrados por fazendeiros locais em apoio ao recém-presidente Bolsonaro

Crédito: Fernando Martinho/Repórter Brasil

8 Feb 22

Areas burned down during “Day of the Fire” are now illegaly occupied by soybean fields

Between August 10 and 11, 2019, farmers and landowners in the southwest of Pará state mobilized to set fire to areas of the Amazon forest in an episode that became known as “Day of the Fire.” In the period, the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) detected 1,457 hotspots in the state, an increase of 1,923% compared to the previous year. More than two years later, Repórter Brasil revealed that the burned area is now home to soybean fields. The agency carried out an unprecedented survey by cross-referencing the coordinates of the locations where it spotted the plantations with fire alert data from NASA satellites at the time.

One of the main areas affected by the fire, the Sustainable Development Project Terra Nossa, a settlement of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), was also invaded by monoculture, even though this type of cultivation goes against the purpose of this type of agrarian reform, intended for the subsistence of the settled families.

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With Bolsonaro, deforestation in the Amazon increased by 56.6%, study says

The survey utilized public data from a governmental institution

Photo: Victor Moriyama/Amazônia em Chamas/Divulgação Greenpeace

2 Feb 22

With Bolsonaro, deforestation in the Amazon increased by 56.6%, study says

A survey by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) indicates that since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, deforestation in the biome has grown 56.6%. The study compared August 2018 and July 2021 to the same period from 2015 to 2018.

According to the study, 51% of deforestation occurred on public lands, with 83% of this total in areas under federal jurisdiction. Proportionally to the size of the territories, Indigenous Lands (TIs) had an average increase of 153% in deforestation compared to the last three-year period, while Conservation Units (UCs) registered an increase of 63.7%.

“When we look at the figures for the last three years, it is clear that Brazil has regressed from what it once was. We are following a path totally opposite to the attitudes that the planet urgently needs right now,” said Ane Alencar, lead author of the study and director of Science at IPAM.

Earlier this year, another study with alarming data on the devastation of the Amazon under the Bolsonaro government was released by the scientific community. According to the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), in 2021, the Amazon forest suffered the largest deforestation of the last 14 years.

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IBAMA spent only 41% of its budget in 2021, report says

The low spendage of resources is atypical

Credit: IBAMA

1 Feb 22

IBAMA spent only 41% of its budget in 2021, report says

In a year in which Brazil broke successive deforestation records, a report by the organization Climate Observatory (OC) points out that Ibama, the nations environmental police, failed to execute about 60% of its budget for environmental crime control. Of the 219 million available, the agency used 88 million, 41% of the total amount. Compared to the results in previous governments, this is atypical. According to the OC, the environmental agency used to spend between 86% and 92% of its resources for surveillance work.

The report “The bill has arrived – The third year of environmental destruction under Jair Bolsonaro” also points out the main environmental policy measures of the current government that are at risk of being approved in Congress in 2022. “The coming months will be especially dangerous, because congressmen allied to Bolsonaro and fueled by the secret budget will try to crown the dismantling by promoting legislative changes, which are irreversible. Brazilian society and Brazil’s international partners need to be very attentive“, warned Suely Araújo, co-author of the document and senior public policy specialist at the Climate Observatory.

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OECD requests commitment to curb deforestation as precondition for Brazil’s membership

Em carta à OCDE, Bolsonaro afirma compromisso com pauta socioambiental

Crédito: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real

27 Jan 22

OECD requests commitment to curb deforestation as precondition for Brazil’s membership

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) formally approved the start of negotiations for Brazil to join the group, requested in 2017. Among the demands presented to Bolsonaro adminstration as conditions for the agreement are the reduction of deforestation and measures to mitigate climate change. provided for in the Paris agreement.

In response, Bolsonaro said that “there is no doubt that Brazil shares the OECD’s objective to support sustainable economic growth“, in a letter sent to the organization’s secretary-general, Mathias Cormann. 

In an article about the beginning of the negotiations, journalist Matheus Pichonelli cited the Smoke Signal socio-environmental monitor when highlighting the dismantling promoted by the government’s environmental policies in the last three years. On the country’s entry into the OECD, Pichonelli says that “to beckon with the club of rich countries, Bolsonaro will have to break with the club of agrotroglodytes”, alluding to the agribusiness sector, an important ally of the president.

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Bolsonaro cuts R$ 35 million from the Ministry of the Environment’s 2022 Budget

Jair Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Joaquim Leite

Credit: Marcos Corrêa/PR.

25 Jan 22

Bolsonaro cuts R$ 35 million from the Ministry of the Environment’s 2022 Budget

With major vetoes, president Jair Bolsonaro approved the the Federal Government budget for 2022 sent by the Congress. Among the cuts, is a reduction of 35.1 million Reais in the budget for the Ministry of the Environment.  

A story published by O eco, revealed that the Environmental Agency IBAMA was the most affected by the budget cuts in the Ministry of the Environment, with a cut of 25,8 million Reais, which includes a 17,2 million Reais cut for prevention and control of forest fires in Federal Protected Areas. The program for sustainable use of soil, biodiversity management and environmental recuperation had a 8.5 millions cut. The National Indigenous Agency FUNAI saw a cut of 1.6 millions. 

The Ministry of the Environment’s total budget for 2022 is approximately 3,1 billions Reais, 6% higher than last year’s budget, which was the lowest in the last 21 years. 

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Due to lack of funds, Inpe could halt its monitoring of Cerrado savanna in April

Deforestation in the Cerrado reached record high in 2021

Credit: SEMAD/MG

6 Jan 22

Due to lack of funds, Inpe could halt its monitoring of Cerrado savanna in April

The Cerrado savanna biome monitoring project carried out by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) could be discontinued in April 2022. According to Inpe, the funding from the Forest Investment Program (FIP), managed by the World Bank and under the guardianship of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, which had maintained the monitoring team since 2016, ended on December 31, 2021.

According to Cláudio Almeida, coordinator of the monitoring program for the Amazon and other biomes, it takes R$2.5 million a year to maintain the 20 professionals who make up the team responsible for daily monitoring and annual balances of deforestation in the biome. The amount is equivalent to half of what the federal government spent on raisins in 2020, according to a comparison made by the One Planet website.

The work done by Inpe is essential for taking adequate measures aimed at the preservation of the Cerrado, which had a record deforestation rate in 2021 and is considered the most threatened biome in Brazil.

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COP26: Amazon Fund donors are still suspicious of Brazil COP26 commitments

Norway and Germany are skeptical of Brazil’s willingness to abide to the environmental goals

Credit: Kiara Worth/UNFCCC

22 Nov 21

COP26: Amazon Fund donors are still suspicious of Brazil COP26 commitments

Brazil left the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) how it entered: discredited internationally due to its environmental policy.

Germany and Norway, the main donors of the Amazon Fund, paralyzed since 2019 due to poor governance from the Ministry of Environment and the accelerated destruction of the biome, are waiting for an indication of how the commitments made by the country at the conference will be implemented. Until this happens, the resources remain frozen.

The Brazilian commitment to reduce 50% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, for example, is not only insufficient, but also anachronistic, since it uses a calculation baseline from 2005.

The research institute WRI Brasil reaffirmed the insufficient character of the Brazilian goals: “Brazil reached the end of this COP26 with the same level of ambition that it committed to in Paris six years ago.”

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COP26: Deal is insufficient to prevent climate change until 2030

Alok Sharma, COP26’s president, announced the agreement with teary eyes

15 Nov 21

COP26: Deal is insufficient to prevent climate change until 2030

“The humanity has lost”. That’s how Carlos Bocuhy, president of the Brazilian Institute For Environmental Protection (PROAM) defined the commitments made by countries at the end of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in the face of the current climate emergency, in an article for the O Eco portal.

One of the main focuses of COP26, which brought together representatives from almost 200 countries, was to establish a series of measures to limit global warming to 1.5° C by 2030. UN also considers the Glasgow Climate Pact signed at the conference as insufficient for the task ahead.

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COP26: Environment Minister Joaquim Leite says that "where's there's forest, there's poverty"

Ministro ignorou as altas taxas de desmatamento dos últimos dois anos

Crédito: Isac Nóbrega/PR/via ClimaInfo

13 Nov 21

COP26: Environment Minister Joaquim Leite says that “where’s there’s forest, there’s poverty”

During an official speech at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, said “where there is a lot of forest there is also a lot of poverty”.

The statement shocked environmentalists and opposition members of parliament, who highlighted it as an indication that Bolsonaro’s  project for the environment remains intact, despite promises of change. “This statement reveals the mentality of the government is from the 70s of the last century: to deforest, for them, is synonymous with development. As it is a government that despises science, they can’t accept that this vision has been overcome by everything science has shown,” declared congressman Alessandro Molon (PSB-RJ) to Jamil Chade’s column.

In the same speech, Leite announced that “the green future has already begun in Brazil. Two days after the minister’s declaration, Inpe released that the Amazon beat the historical record of deforestation alerts for the month, adding an area of 877 km². Throughout the event, the government has ignored the advance of deforestation in the country.

 

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Xerente women create the first women’s forest fire brigade in the country

The brigade also helps to educate the local community about fire prevention

Credit: Reproduction

1 Nov 21

Xerente women create the first women’s forest fire brigade in the country

In the municipality of Tocantínia, Tocantins state, indigenous women from the Xerente indigenous people created the first female forest fire brigade in Brazil

The initiative came from residents of the Cachoeirinha village. In August, the community hosted a training course for 29 women, with support from the City Hall, the US Forest Service and the National Indian Foundation (Funai).

In addition to firefighting work, the group also performs environmental education actions in the region. “It is a job that all of us firefighters are enjoying. It’s a learning experience, because of the direct contact with older people, with young people and children. In this face to face work, we show the reality and what happens to nature when there is fire”, said Vanessa Xerente, 33 years old, resident of the Cachoeira Brejo de Ouro Village and head of the Xerente Women’s Brigade Squad. 

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Smoke Signal publishes report "Backwards with Bolsonaro" on the socio-environmental destruction during Bolsonaro’s three years in office
28 Oct 21

Smoke Signal publishes report “Backwards with Bolsonaro” on the socio-environmental destruction during Bolsonaro’s three years in office

Three years after Jair Bolsonaro’s election, Smoke Signal organized a comprehensive report that organized key points of the dismantling of socio-environmental governance and deforestation reduction policies in Brazil.

The bilingual dossier “Backwards with Bolsonaro – 30 years in Three” shows that the destruction is a political project announced since the elections and implemented from day one of Bolsonaro’s administration. The material was prepared using the over 450 articles published in our timeline since October, 2018.

The dossier will be launched while heads of state from hundreds of countries are gathering at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-26) to discuss how to stop the climate emergency. Brazil has been increasing its participation in the problem with the growth of pollutant emissions derived from deforestation and the carbonization of the energy matrix due to the water crisis — which are, in turn, linked to forest losses. 

Click here to read “JB Government: 30 years in 3” in Portuguese and here in English.

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