More than half of all the deforested area in Brazil in 2023 occurred in the biome, mainly in the Matopiba region between Bahia, Piauí, Tocantins and Maranhão
The Cerrado's leadership in terms of deforestation area in 2023 is reflected in other indicators, according to the Annual Report on Deforestation 2023. It is in the Cerrado, for example, that Brazil's largest deforestation alert is located: an area of 6,691 hectares, in the municipality of Alto Parnaíba (MA). It is also where the alert with the highest average daily speed was detected: 944 hectares in 8 days, in the municipality of Baixa Grande do Ribeiro (PI). More than half of the entire area deforested in Brazil in 2023 was in the biomemainly in the Matopiba region between Bahia, Piauí, Tocantins and Maranhão.
The Cerrado is home to the Indigenous Territory (TI) with the largest deforested area in the country last year: Porquinhos dos Canela-Apãnjekra, with around 2,750 hectares. In all, 7,048 hectares of native vegetation were lost in Indigenous Lands in the Cerrado, an increase of 188% compared to 2022. Throughout Brazil, on the other hand, there was a drop in deforestation in Indigenous Lands.
> Access the main highlights of RAD 2023
The same trend reversal was seen in quilombola territories (TQs) and Conservation Units (UCs). In TQs, the increase in deforested area was 665%, with 2,555 hectares. The TQ with the largest area is in the Cerrado desmatada Barra do Aroeira (1,597 hectares deforested). The most deforested Environmental Protection Area (APA) in Brazil in 2023 is also in the Cerrado: APA do Rio Preto, with 13,596 hectares deforested.
With the exception of Piauí, São Paulo and Paraná, all the other Cerrado states registered an increase in deforestation in 2023 compared to 2022. In the case of Maranhão, Tocantins, Goiás, Pará and the Federal District, the deforested area more than doubled..
São Desidério (BA) leads the ranking of municipalities with the most deforestation in the country in 2023, with 40,052 hectares. Last year, 70% of Cerrado municipalities recorded at least one deforestation event.
“The Cerrado, which has already lost more than half of its native vegetation, has become the leading cause of deforestation in the country, which makes this condition even more worrying,” says Ane Alencar, coordinator of MapBiomas Cerrado and Director of Science at IPAM.
RAD 2023: Deforestation reduced in the Amazon states; see the situation in the biomes
Evidence of illegality in deforested areas prevails from the north to the south of Brazil
Reducing deforestation in Protected Areas
By 2023, 20,822 hectares of native vegetation within Indigenous Lands (TIs) were cleared, which represents 1.1% of all deforestation in the year. This was a reduction de of more than 27% in deforestation in Indigenous Lands compared to 2022.
96,761 hectares of native vegetation were lost within Conservation Units (CUs) in 2023, which represents a reduction of 53.5% on the previous year. In Full Protection Conservation Units, the reduction was 72.3%. The greatest loss of native vegetation in Conservation Units occurred in State APAs in the Cerrado, totaling 41,934 hectares deforested.
