The pasture area has increased by 200% in the Amazon over the last 36 years Neste período a quantidade de pastagens severamente degradadas caiu pela metade em todo o país

The main land use in Brazil is pasture: it occupies 154 million hectares from north to south of the country, present in all six biomes. This area is roughly equivalent to the entire state of Amazonas, which has 156 million hectares. Or 6.2 states of São Paulo. Or more than two and a half times the size of Bahia. The data is part of a groundbreaking mapping by MapBiomas presented on Wednesday, October 13th, via YouTube.

The area allocated for livestock is even greater when considering that it includes portions of natural grasslands, primarily in the Pampas and Pantanal, covering 46.6 million hectares in the country, as well as areas of mixed agriculture and pasture where mapping did not allow for separation or where they occur in a combined manner, covering 45 million hectares.

The analysis of satellite images between 1985 and 2020 also allowed for the assessment of the quality of Brazilian pastures, revealing a decrease in areas showing signs of degradation from 70% in 2000 to 53% in 2020. In the case of severely degraded pastures, there was an even more significant reduction; they represented 29% of pastures in 2000 (46.3 million hectares) and now represent 14% (22.1 million hectares). This improvement was identified in all biomes, with the ones showing the greatest reduction in severely degraded areas being the Amazon (60%), Cerrado (56.4%), Atlantic Forest (52%), and Pantanal (25.6%).  

 "The quality of pastures is of strategic importance for both the producer and the country. For the producer, it is directly related to the productivity of the herd, whether for beef or dairy production. For the country, well-managed pastures have the capacity to capture carbon. On the other hand, degraded pastures exacerbate the agricultural sector's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, which are altering the climate, with detrimental effects on agricultural activities," explains Laerte Ferreira, professor and Vice Dean of Postgraduate Studies (PRPG) at the Federal University of Goiás and coordinator of the pasture survey at MapBiomas.  

From 1985 to 2020, at least 252 million hectares are or have been pastureland. Satellite image analysis has revealed two distinct phases in the process of converting nearly one-third of the country into pasture during this period. It was more intense between 1985 and 2006, when there was a 46.3% growth in the extent occupied by pastures, which increased from 111 million hectares to 162.4 million hectares. In the mid-2000s, the total pasture area stopped growing and even shrank, experiencing a 5% reduction from 2005 to 2020.  

This apparent stability conceals an intense process of land use change, with the conversion of native vegetation areas to pastureland and the occupation of already converted areas by agriculture. In the specific case of the Amazon, satellite images show that cattle ranching expanded by 38 million hectares between 1985 and 2020 - an increase of about 200%. This growth has made the Amazon the biome with the largest extent of cultivated pastures, totaling 56.6 million hectares, followed by the Cerrado (47 million hectares), Atlantic Forest (28.5 million hectares), Caatinga (20 million hectares), and Pantanal (2.4 million hectares).

MapBiomas Collection 6 showed that agriculture and livestock gained 81.2 million hectares between 1985 and 2020 - a growth of 44.6%. Agricultural activities expanded in five of the six Brazilian biomes, with the exception of the Atlantic Forest. Specific data on the advancement of agriculture will be presented in a groundbreaking study by MapBiomas to be launched on October 20th.  

In percentage terms, the biome most occupied by cultivated pastures is the Atlantic Forest, with 25.7%, followed by the Cerrado (23.7%), Caatinga (23.1%), Pantanal (16%), and Amazon (13.4%). The leading states in pasture area are Pará (21.5 million hectares), Mato Grosso (21 million hectares), and Minas Gerais (19.3 million hectares).

Access the main highlights of Pasture in Collection 6. 

Find out how the webinar presenting pasture data went.