Deforestation in Brazil's Cerrado savannah area surged by a staggering 66 percent.
In the southern region of the Brazilian Amazon, also known as the savannah area of Cerrado, deforestation rose by a staggering two-thirds in 2023. With over 1.1 million hectares of forest being lost, MapBiomas, a collective comprising NGOs and Brazilian universities, reports that this is an alarming 68% increase from the year before. Deforestation in the wet savannas accounts for roughly two-thirds of deforestation in the entire country, and doubles the destruction in the Amazon region itself. The Amazon area witnessed a significant decrease in clearing, with only 454,300 hectares of forest being cut down last year, casting light on a drop of more than 60% compared to the previous year.
Tasso Azevedo of MapBiomas disclosed that the destruction of vegetation in Brazilian rainforest regions is actually declining, yet the focus of deforestation is shifting towards savannas and grasslands. He emphasized that the primary reason behind this vegetation loss is typically agrarian expansion. Signalling a crucial change, overall deforestation within Brazil last year experienced a much-awaited decline for the first time in four years. A promise made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was to curb deforestation. During the tenure of Lula's ultraconservative predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation had risen by a staggering 75% from the average of the previous decade.
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- Despite a decline in deforestation in Brazilian rainforest regions, the Savannah area of Cerrado, accounting for a third of the country's deforestation, experienced a 68% increase, resulting in the loss of over a million hectares of forest.
- In contrast to the Amazon region, which saw a significant decrease in forest clearing last year, deforestation in the Cerrado savannah area equated to more than two million hectares, representing a million-hectare increase compared to the previous year.
- Tasso Azevedo, from MapBiomas, highlighted that while deforestation in Brazilian rainforest regions is decreasing, the Cerrado savannah area is witnessing an increase, attributing this to agrarian expansion that is causing deforestation of around one million hectares each year.
Source: www.ntv.de
