RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 14 (Bernama-dpa) — Some 52 million hectares of natural land have been lost in the Brazilian Amazon region since 1985 – an area larger than Spain, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
Nationwide, the loss over the past four decades amounts to 111.7 million hectares – more than three times the size of Germany – a report by the initiative MapBiomas released on Wednesday showed.
The network, which consists of universities, non-governmental organisations, and technology companies, examines primarily satellite images.
By 1985, Brazil had converted 60 per cent of the land currently used for agriculture, mining, cities, and infrastructure over nearly five centuries.
“The remaining 40 per cent of this conversion occurred in just four decades, from 1985 to 2024,” said Tasso Azevedo, coordinator of MapBiomas.
The most intense deforestation occurred between 1995 and 2004. However, in the last decade, this trend “was accelerated again by degradation, climate impacts, and agricultural expansion,” said Julia Shimbo, scientific coordinator of MapBiomas.
Overall, according to the report, the share of natural areas in Brazil decreased from 80 per cent in 1985 to 65 per cent in 2024.
In the Pantanal, which is the world’s largest wetland, the flood cycles have decreased with each decade, culminating in 2024 as the driest year of the last 40 years.
Last year, the water surface there was 73 per cent below the average of the years 1985 to 2024. The reduced moisture also favoured devastating forest fires.
In the Cerrado, Brazil’s moist savannas in the southeast, about 40 million hectares of natural vegetation were cleared over the four decades. This corresponds to a reduction of 28 per cent.
— BERNAMA-dpa