The Amazon suffered in 2022 with the fifth consecutive annual record in deforestation, according to Imazon satellite monitoring. Between January and December, 10,573 km² were devastated, the largest destruction in 15 years – since the research institute began monitoring the region in 2008. This equates to the overthrow of almost 3,000 football fields per day of forest.

As a result, the accumulated deforestation in the last four years, between 2019 and 2022, reached 35,193 km². An area that exceeds the size of two states: Sergipe and Alagoas, which have 21 and 27,000 km², respectively. In addition to representing an increase of almost 150% compared to the previous four years, between 2015 and 2018, when 14,424 km² were devastated.

"We hope that this was the last record of deforestation reported by our satellite monitoring system, as the new government has promised to give priority to the protection of the Amazon. But for this to happen, management must seek maximum effectiveness in measures to combat devastation, such as some already announced back from the demarcation of indigenous lands, restructuring of supervisory bodies and encouraging income generation with the standing forest," Bianca Santos, a researcher at Imazon, said in a statement.

In December alone, the Amazon lost 287 km² of forest, an increase of 105% compared to the same month of 2021, when 140 km² were devastated. It was the month that had the highest high of the year in the overthrow. With this, 2022 also had the worst December since 2008, when monitoring of Imazon began.

Pará, Amazonas and Mato Grosso follow the largest deforesters

In the analysis of the nine states that make up the Legal Amazon, the ones that most deforested in 2022 were Pará (3,874 km²), Amazonas (2,575 km²) and Mato Grosso (1,604), with 37%, 24% and 15% of all fellout in the region, respectively. Placements that follow the same since 2019.

In 2022, Amazonas and Mato Grosso were the only states that had an increase in destruction compared to 2021, both in federal and state areas, being responsible for the closure of the amazon accumulated on the rise.

The most serious case was the Amazon, where the devastation grew 24% compared to the previous year, when 2,071 km² were knocked down. In the state, the overthrow has been advancing mainly on the border with Acre and Rondônia, in the region of agricultural expansion called "Amacro". It is in this locality that is the champion municipality of deforestation in the Amazon in 2022: Apuí, with 586 km².

Source: Um só Planeta