Data on enforcement shows that impunity still prevails in combating deforestation.

MapBiomas launches a new platform that monitors public data sobre fiscalização do desmatamento pelo governo federal e em cinco estados

More than 97% of deforestation alerts in Brazil verified by MapBiomas since January 2019 have no record of enforcement action or authorization, according to official data available from the federal government. When analyzing five states in the federation - Goiás, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará, and São Paulo - a slightly better situation was found. The highlight is Mato Grosso, where enforcement has already occurred in 29% of deforestation alerts. This is shown in the first set of data from the Deforestation Enforcement Monitor - a new online platform that MapBiomas is launching this Tuesday (3/5). It presents in a direct, updated, and transparent manner the data on deforestation authorizations and enforcement actions by the federal government and state governments of five federative units. 

The Deforestation Enforcement Monitor is an initiative led by MapBiomas, with the support of teams from Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV) and Brasil.IO, which collects and organizes information about deforestation authorizations, enforcement fines, and property embargoes issued by federal and state control agencies. To do this, data is accessed from available databases on digital platforms of agencies such as SINAFLOR and the Open Data Portal of IBAMA, as well as the Transparency Portal of the Environmental Secretariat of Mato Grosso. All data is then cross-referenced with deforestation alerts published by MapBiomas to identify the extent to which detected deforestation in Brazil has overlapping enforcement actions. Currently, the monitoring covers the federal government and five states that already provide geographic data. Over the next few months, other states will be incorporated as they publish their enforcement data.

The initial data from the Deforestation Enforcement Monitor shows that as of March 2022, in the case of the federal government, only 2.17% of alerts had any enforcement action. The area with registered enforcement actions reached 13.1% of the total deforestation detected since 2019.

In the case of state governments, the situation varies from state to state, but already shows more favorable data in some cases:

  • In Minas Gerais, enforcement actions by SEMAD or authorizations issued by IEF geographically intersected with 22.4% of the deforestation alerts published in the state. The alerts where actions were identified represent a combined 34.6% of the deforested area.
  • 29.5% of the more than 13,000 deforestation alerts in Mato Grosso were subject to enforcement action or deforestation authorization. After acquiring a deforestation alert system with high-resolution images, the state has strengthened its fight against illegal deforestation. When considering the total area of alerts with any action or authorization, the percentage rises to 41%.
  • Pará is the state with the most deforestation alerts validated by MapBiomas - more than 60,000 since January 2019. From the analysis of available public data, authorizations or embargoes from the state government apply to 1.8% of these alerts, representing 9.8% of the total published deforestation.
  • In São Paulo, enforcement actions by SIMA covered 21% of deforestation alerts that occurred in the state, or 26% of the total deforested area.
  • In Goiás, enforcement actions covered 10.3% of deforestation alerts that occurred in the state, representing 24.8% of the detected deforested area during the period.

"What was evident from the Deforestation Enforcement Monitor is that despite the abundance of information and evidence of environmental crimes, enforcement actions are still insufficient to curb deforestation," says Ana Paula Valdiones, coordinator of ICV and one of the responsible parties for the platform.

"The imposition of fines, confiscations, embargoes, and closures, among other measures by competent authorities, can prevent environmental damage, punish offenders, and prevent future environmental violations," explains Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas. "There have been significant advances, especially in the states, but the data from the Monitor shows that impunity still characterizes illegal deforestation in Brazil," he adds. "Providing transparency and publicity to deforestation enforcement actions allows decision-makers, especially in the private and financial sectors, to have a clearer view of the risks they face regarding contamination of the supply chain with products originating from areas involved in illegal deforestation activities," he emphasizes.

To build the Enforcement Monitoring System, the MapBiomas team evaluated the availability of information from federal and state agencies. Active transparency is one of the bottlenecks for monitoring actions to combat illegal deforestation. Therefore, in this first phase of the Monitoring System, it was only possible to rely on updated and appropriately formatted data for five states (GO, MT, MG, PA, and SP), as well as the federal government.

Access the enforcement monitor at: https://plataforma.alerta.mapbiomas.org/monitor-da-fiscalizacao


About MapBiomas Alert - MapBiomas Alert consolidates information provided by various systems that monitor deforestation in Brazil, such as DETER/INPE, SAD/IMAZON, GLAD/Univ. Maryland, and SAD Caatinga/Geodatin/UEFS. Each alert is validated and generates a report with high-resolution images before and after deforestation, as well as possible intersections with areas from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), National Register of Conservation Units (CNUC), Indigenous Lands, and other geographic boundaries (e.g., biomes, states, river basins). The result is a comprehensive report for each deforestation event detected in Brazil. This documentation is made available openly and free of charge so that enforcement agencies, financial institutions, companies, and civil society can take action to halt illegal deforestation. From January 2019 to December 2021, over 195,000 deforestation alerts covering more than 4 million hectares have been published.

See how the launch event of the Deforestation Enforcement Monitor unfolded: