In three years, the deforested area reached 42,000 km2, almost the size of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil lost 16,557 km2 (1,655,782 ha) of native vegetation cover across all its biomes last year, according to the latest edition of the Annual Deforestation Report in Brazil (RAD) from MapBiomas. This represents a 20% increase compared to the previous year. With the upward trend in deforestation over the last three years, during this period, Brazil lost nearly an area equivalent to the state of Rio de Janeiro in native vegetation.

The average deforestation rate in the country also increased, rising from 0.16 hectares per day for each validated deforestation event in 2020 to 0.18 hectares per day in 2021. With a daily average of 191 new events, the deforested area per day in 2021 amounted to 4,536 hectares - or 189 hectares per hour. In the Amazon alone, 111.6 hectares were deforested per hour, or 1.9 hectares per minute, equivalent to about 18 trees per second.

The study, which refined and validated 69,796 deforestation alerts in 2021 across the entire national territory, individually assessed each deforestation event by cross-referencing data from protected areas, authorizations, and rural environmental registration (CAR). It found indications of irregularities in more than 98% of cases. Only 1.34% of the alerts (which correspond to 0.87% of the total deforested area) showed no indications or evidence of irregularity. This percentage of irregularity is in line with the 99% detected in previous reports (2019 and 2020).  

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The deforestation alerts that intersect with rural properties registered in the CAR correspond to 77% of the total deforested area. This means that in at least 3/4 of deforestations, a responsible party can be identified. There were 59,181 properties with detected deforestation in the country in 2021, representing 0.9% of the rural properties registered in the CAR until 2021. There were 19,953 properties registered in the CAR that were repeat offenders, having deforestation recorded in 2019 and/or 2020. When considering the period from 2019 to 2021, the number of properties with at least one detected deforestation event rises to 134,318, representing 2.1% of Brazilian rural properties. In other words, deforestation was not detected in the last 3 years in almost 98% of rural properties.

“To address the issue of illegality, it is necessary to tackle impunity — the risk of being penalized and held accountable for illegal destruction of native vegetation needs to be real and properly perceived by environmental offenders," explains Tasso Azevedo, coordinator of MapBiomas. "To achieve this, action must be taken on three fronts, ensuring that: all deforestation is detected and reported; all illegal deforestation is subject to accountability and punishment of offenders (e.g., fines, embargoes); the offender does not benefit from illegally deforested areas and receives some form of penalty (e.g., credit restrictions, CAR pending, land regularization impediment, exclusion from supply chains)."

A novelty in this year's edition is the identification of deforestation pressure vectors, such as agriculture, mining, livestock farming, urban expansion, and others, including pressure for the construction of wind and solar power plants, mainly in the Northeast region. The numbers show the prevalence and stability in the level of agricultural pressure over the last three years, with the activity responsible for deforestation percentages above 97%. In this scenario, the state of Pará stands out in some areas where mining was a significant pressure vector. In areas near capitals and major urban centers, urban expansion was the main pressure factor. 

Em todo o Brasil, areas desmatadas com menos de 25 ha representam 82,8% do total de alertas, mas somente 22,8% da área desmatada. Já os alertas com mais de 100 ha representam 4,4% dos alertas, mas 51,7% do total desmatado no país. Nessa categoria houve um aumento de 37,8% entre 2020 e 2021. Em 2021, foram constatados 3.040 desmatamentos com mais de 1 km2 (100 hectares), sendo que 107 deles superam os 10 km2 ou 1.000 hectares. Para efeito de comparação, o Central Park em Nova Iorque tem 3,41 km2 e o Parque Ibirapuera em São Paulo tem 1,6 km2.

This report is the third in a series aimed at consolidating and analyzing information on all deforestation detected in the six Brazilian biomes by multiple alert systems available, which were validated, refined, and published by the MapBiomas Alert project. It will be launched this Monday (07/18) at 10:30 AM in a webinar on YouTube..

The Amazon concentrated 59% of the deforested area in 2021.

The numbers leave no doubt that the Amazon was the major front of native vegetation suppression in Brazil over the last three years. Data shows that this biome concentrated 59% of the deforested area and 66.8% of the deforestation alerts in 2021. There were over 977 thousand hectares of native vegetation destroyed last year - an increase of almost 15% compared to the 851 thousand hectares deforested in 2020, which, in turn, already represented a 10% increase compared to the 771 thousand hectares deforested in 2019. 

In second place comes the Cerrado, with just over half a million hectares (30%), followed by the Caatinga, with more than 116 thousand hectares (7%). Even with less than 29% of its forest cover, the Atlantic Forest had 30,155 hectares deforested - 1.8% of the alert area. Despite accounting for the smallest area of alerts (0.1% of the total), the Pampa nearly doubled the deforested amount (92.1%). In the Pantanal, there was an increase of 50.5% in detected alerts and 15.7% in deforested area between 2020 and 2021.

Together, the Amazon and Cerrado accounted for 89.2% of the detected deforested area in 2021. When the Caatinga is added, these three biomes accounted for 96.2% of the losses. 

The largest increases, in terms of deforested area compared to 2020, occurred in the Amazon (126,680 ha) and the Cerrado (83,981 ha), while in proportional terms, they occurred in the Caatinga (88.9%) and the Pampa (92.1%). In the case of the Caatinga, the increase is related to the improvement of the new data source used by MapBiomas, the SAD Caatinga, specialized in detecting deforestation in dry forests in the biome.

Although the Cerrado accounts for only 9.9% of the total number of alerts, the total deforested area represents almost one-third of the total (30.2%). In the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes, deforestation predominates in forest formations. In the Cerrado, Caatinga, Pampa, and Pantanal, the predominance is in other non-forest formations. As the detection of deforestation in non-forest native vegetation is still deficient, alerts in these classes are underestimated. The dynamics of deforestation in the biomes also showed differences in behavior in 2021. In the Cerrado, the peak of deforestation occurred in the first half of May; in the Amazon, it was in the second week of July; in the Atlantic Forest and Pantanal, it was in August; in the Pampa, in October.

The states that deforested the most

Of every four hectares deforested in Brazil in 2021, one was in Pará, where deforestation reached 402,492 ha (24.3% of the total). Amazonas, which was fourth in the ranking in 2020, now appeared in second place, with 194,485 ha deforested, representing 11.8% of the total. Mato Grosso appeared in third, with a loss of 189,880 ha (11.5%), followed by Maranhão, with 167,047 ha (10.1%), and Bahia, with 152,098 ha (9.2%). Together, these 5 states accounted for 67% of the deforested area in Brazil in 2021.

Thirteen states surpassed the mark of 1,000 deforestation alerts in 2021; in 2020, there were 11 states, and in 2019, 10 states. There was an increase in deforested area in 20 states, remaining stable in two (TO and RR) and decreasing in only five (AL, SC, ES, RJ, and AP). Among the states where deforestation grew the most in proportional terms are Pernambuco, Paraíba, Ceará, Minas Gerais, and Sergipe, with more than 80% increase in the detected area. This reflects both the growth of deforestation and the improvement in the detection system of SAD Caatinga. In absolute numbers, the largest increases were in Amazonas (64,673 ha) and Bahia (46,160 ha). 

Nearly a quarter (23.6%) of the deforestation in Brazil in 2021 occurred in Matopiba, where there was also a 14% increase in deforested area compared to 2020. There were 5,206 alerts and 391,559 hectares deforested. The Matopiba region concentrated most of the deforestation in the Cerrado, accounting for about 73%. In the new deforestation frontier of the Amazon - the region becoming known as Amacro (on the border of Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia) - the deforested area represented 12.2% of the total in Brazil in 2021, with 6,858 alerts and 203,143 hectares deforested. In 2021, it showed a 28.8% increase in deforestation compared to 2020.

Deforestation is higher in private areas

In Brazil, 69.5% of all deforested areas in 2021 were on private properties, including 14.1% in rural settlements. Another 10.6% fell on public lands, with 9.3% on unallocated public lands. Deforestation in protected areas accounted for 5.3% of the total, with 1.7% in Indigenous Territories and 3.6% in Conservation Units.

In the Pantanal and Cerrado biomes, most of the deforested areas are concentrated on private lands (94.1% and 75.9%, respectively). In the Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa biomes, the concentration of alerts occurs in land gaps (unallocated lands or private areas not yet registered in the Rural Environmental Registry - CAR). Also, in the Amazon, the highest percentage of deforestation occurs on private lands (44.6%), followed by rural settlements (22.2%), public lands (17.2%), and protected areas (excluding APAs) with 8.5%. 

In the last three years (between 2019 and 2021), there has been an increase in deforestation in all land categories, except in Indigenous Territories (TIs), which reinforces the importance of these territories for environmental preservation. The most significant increases were in unallocated lands (88%), public lands not allocated (47%), and private lands (32%). 

The area of alerts with full overlap with areas covered by the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) reached 1,265,128 hectares, representing 76% of the deforested area in the country. However, when considering the area of alerts that also partially intersect with CAR, this number increases to 1,445,066 hectares, or 87% of the deforested area in Brazil.

One-third (33%) of all alerts detected in Brazil in 2021 overlap with areas registered as Legal Reserves (RL). This represents 22% of the total deforested area in the country. The number of alerts that overlap with Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) declared in the CAR reached 5% of the total (in terms of area, 0.6%).

Conservation Unit

In 2021, 166,895 hectares of deforestation were detected within Conservation Units (UCs), representing 10.1% of the total area detected in Brazil in 2021. Out of the 2,181 federal and state terrestrial UCs registered in the National System of Conservation Units (CNUC), 252 UCs (11.6%) experienced at least one deforestation event of at least 1 hectare in 2021 – a number similar to that observed in 2020 (254 UCs). 

Among these 252 Conservation Units (UCs), 21 had more than 1,000 hectares deforested, with 12 of them being Environmental Protection Areas (APAs). They are located in ten states: PA, RO, BA, TO, AC, CE, MA, PI, MG, and GO. The two UCs with the largest deforested areas were the APA of Triunfo do Xingu (PA), with 48,971 hectares, and the Jamanxim National Forest (PA), with 18,281 hectares. The area with the highest number of alerts was the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Acre, with 1,078 alerts.

The majority of this deforestation occurred in sustainable use Conservation Units (91.9%). Although in full protection Conservation Units, this percentage was only 8.1% of the total observed in Conservation Units, it was in this category where the issue advanced the most.

Indigenous lands

The deforestation that occurred in Indigenous Territories (TIs) represented 4.7% of the total alerts and 1.9% of the total deforested area in Brazil in 2021. The majority of the alerts and deforested area in TIs are located in the Amazon biome. 

Out of the total of 573 Indigenous Territories (TIs) in Brazil (considering their various stages of recognition and demarcation, including with interdiction orders), 232 (40.5%) experienced at least one deforestation event in 2021. The number of TIs that had some deforestation between 2019 and 2021 reached 326 (57%). Of this total, only 11 (2%) had more than 500 hectares deforested. The TIs with deforestation are located in eight states: AM, PA, RO, MA, MT, PR, AC, and RR.

The largest deforestations occurred in the Apyterewa (8,247 hectares), Trincheira Bacajá (2,620 hectares), and Cachoeira Seca (2,034 hectares) Indigenous Territories, all in the state of Pará. Kayapó and Apyterewa were the Indigenous Territories with the highest number of alerts in 2021, with 531 and 514, respectively. 

Monitoring

The analysis of actions carried out by environmental control agencies to curb illegal deforestation indicates that the embargoes and fines imposed by IBAMA and ICMBio until May 2022 only affected 2.4% of the deforestation and 10.5% of the identified deforested area between 2019 and 2021. In the 52 municipalities defined as priority areas by the Ministry of the Environment for combating deforestation in the Amazon, this index is slightly better: 4.4% of the total alerts and 21.2% of the deforested area.

Based on the available data, when the actions carried out by federal and state agencies, including Public Prosecutors, are combined, the number of deforestation alerts detected between 2019 and 2021 with enforcement actions rises to 15,980, representing 7.7% of the total and 27.1% of the deforested area (1.169 million hectares). 

During the period from 2019 to 2021, there was greater activity by enforcement agencies in the states of the Southeast region compared to other regions of the country, considering the percentage of alerts with enforcement actions as an indicator (88.4% in ES, 27.3% in RJ, 26% in MG, and 21.8% in SP). The states with the highest proportion of deforestation responded with some type of action (whether authorization, fines, or embargoes) are Espírito Santo (86.3%), Mato Grosso (66%), Minas Gerais (43.2%), and Tocantins (40.9%). The lowest rates are in Bahia (1.7%), Santa Catarina (3%), and Pernambuco (4.4%).

The states with the lowest levels of enforcement are Pernambuco (1.1%), Piauí (1.1%), Amapá (1.2%), Bahia (1.4%), and Santa Catarina (1.5%). It's worth noting that in most of these states (with the exception of Bahia), there was no access to state-level databases.