{"id":2598,"date":"2022-10-19T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brasil.mapbiomas.org\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2023-10-02T19:03:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T19:03:43","slug":"57-dos-municipios-da-mata-atlantica-tem-menos-de-30-de-vegetacao-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brasil.mapbiomas.org\/en\/2022\/10\/19\/57-dos-municipios-da-mata-atlantica-tem-menos-de-30-de-vegetacao-natural\/","title":{"rendered":"57% of Atlantic Forest municipalities have less than 30% natural vegetation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agriculture has been the fastest-growing type of land use in the Atlantic Forest over the last 37 years. Urbanized areas tripled between 1985 and 2021<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Atlantic Forest, home to 70% of Brazilians, is becoming increasingly distant from its original configuration. According to the latest MapBiomas data for the area covered by Law No. 11.428 of 2006, which extends the boundaries of this biome to 17 states, only 24.3% of this territory still remains as forest. This type of cover, which occupied 27.1% in 1985, fell to 24.3% in 2021.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The states with the lowest native cover in 2021 are Alagoas (17.7%), Goi\u00e1s (19.5%), Pernambuco (23.4%), Sergipe (25.5%), S\u00e3o Paulo (28.4%) and Esp\u00edrito Santo (29.3%). More than half (57%) of the municipalities have less than 30% native vegetation. The states with the highest native Atlantic Forest cover last year were Piau\u00ed (89.9%), Cear\u00e1 (76.9%), Bahia (49.7%) and Santa Catarina (48.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the reduction in area, there is a process of reduction in the quality of this vegetation cover: between 1985 and 2021 there was a loss of 23% of mature forest. In 37 years, 9.8 million hectares of primary vegetation were cut down, while 8.8 million hectares regenerated into secondary vegetation. They account for 26% of all forest cover in the Atlantic Forest. \"Secondary forests are essential for protecting rivers, reducing the distance between fragments and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, but they don't have the same biodiversity as a primary forest. Secondary vegetation is also more susceptible to new deforestation after a short recovery period and a third of it never reaches 8 years of age,\" warns Marcos Rosa, MapBiomas' technical coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>> Access the main highlights of the Atlantic Forest (Collection 7)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While forest cover recedes, the area devoted to agriculture grows: this was the type of land use that grew the most in the Atlantic Forest over the last 37 years. This activity has expanded by 10.9 million hectares. If in 1985 it occupied 9.2% of the biome, in 2021 this percentage reached 17.6%. During this period, forestry gained 3.7 million hectares, from 0.7% (1985) to 3.5% of the biome. Together, agriculture and forestry already occupy a fifth of the Atlantic Forest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prevailing land use in the biome is still pasture. Although this activity has seen a net loss of 10.5 million hectares in the last 37 years, one in every four hectares of this biome is still pasture, which is losing ground to agriculture, but is still advancing over forest areas. That's 32.2 million hectares, or 24.6% of the Atlantic Forest. Farming, agriculture, pastures, mosaic areas and forestry occupy 60.1% of the Atlantic Forest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O uso predominante da terra no bioma ainda \u00e9 a pastagem. Embora essa atividade tenha registrado uma perda l\u00edquida de 10,5 milh\u00f5es de hectares nos \u00faltimos 37 anos, um em cada quatro hectares desse bioma ainda \u00e9 pastagem, que est\u00e1 perdendo terreno para a agricultura, mas ainda avan\u00e7a sobre as \u00e1reas de floresta. S\u00e3o 32,2 milh\u00f5es de hectares, ou 24,6% da Mata Atl\u00e2ntica. A agropecu\u00e1ria, a agricultura, as pastagens, as \u00e1reas de mosaico e a silvicultura ocupam 60,1% da Mata Atl\u00e2ntica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effects of the degradation of the Atlantic Forest can already be seen. One of the environmental services provided by forests is water production and protection. In the period analyzed, from 1985 to 2021, the Paran\u00e1 basin had its native cover reduced from 22.5% in 1985 to 21.6% in 2021. The Paranapanema and S\u00e3o Francisco basins also saw a reduction in native cover, from 21.3% (1985) to 20.3% and from 57% (1985) to 52.9%, respectively.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"After successive water crises affecting dozens of cities along the Atlantic Forest, it is worrying to see this biome's capacity to provide environmental services being continually weakened,\" warns Lu\u00eds Fernando Guedes Pinto, Executive Director of SOS Mata Atl\u00e2ntica. \"The preservation of what remains of the Atlantic Rainforest and large-scale restoration are essential if we are to preserve some of this region's resilience to the double threat of the climate crisis and the increasingly irregular rainfall patterns resulting from deforestation in the Amazon,\" he points out, recalling that we are now in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. Some positive examples were the Tiet\u00ea basin, with very little native cover, but which went from 14.29% (1985) to 15.0% (2021) and the Rio Grande, which increased from 17.6% to 19.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it's not just forest cover that has declined over the last 37 years. Between 1985 and 2021 there was a net loss of 9% of the area of savannah formations, 14% of which were secondary vegetation in 2021. The same process can be detected in grassland formations: they fell by 25% between 1985 and 2021. Restinga trees lost 12% of their surface area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MapBiomas survey based on image mapping respected the contours determined by Law No. 11.428 of 2006, also known as the Atlantic Forest Law. As a result, all forest remnants were analyzed, including the enclaves of Piau\u00ed, Cear\u00e1 and the interior of Bahia. The remaining 465,711 km2 of the Atlantic Forest are found in 17 states (the continuous area extends over only 15 states). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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