New MapBiomas Amazonía data collection shows that three out of every four hectares have been transformed into pastures

An unprecedented mapping of the land cover and land use of 844 million hectares of South America, corresponding to the 47% of the continent where the Amazon and the headwaters of its main rivers extend, shows that the opening of new pasture areas has been the main driver of changes in forests and other ecosystems. The data is part of MapBiomas Amazonía – Coleção 5.0, a series of maps of annual land cover and land use in the Amazon produced by the Rede Amazônica de Informação Socioambiental Georreferenciada/RAISG with the support of the MapBiomas network for the period between 1985 and 2022, which will be presented online this Friday, December 8, during the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference. United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is taking place in Dubai.”

The area assessed goes beyond the Brazilian Legal Amazon, although 61.9% of the territory analyzed (521.9 million hectares) is in Brazil. It includes the limits of the Amazon biome in Colombia and Venezuela, the limits of the Amazon basin in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, the sum of the limits of the main river basins that feed the biome (Amazon and Araguaia-Tocantins) and the entire continental territory of Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname, which do not belong to the Amazon river basin, but are covered by forest similar in shape and composition to the rest of the region.

The survey shows that of the 86 million hectares of natural vegetation eliminated in the analyzed territory, 84 million were converted into agricultural and forestry areas, with pasture occupying 66.5 million hectares of the devastated area between 1985 and 2022 – or 77% of the transformed area. Areas for agriculture, meanwhile, have grown by 19.4 million hectares in the last 38 years. In total, anthropogenic land uses in the Pan-Amazon in 1985 accounted for 51 million hectares, or 6% of the biome. By 2022, it was 136 million hectares, or 16% of the total. This represents an increase of 85 million hectares, or 169%, over the period.

The elimination of vegetation primarily affects the forest: only 6 million hectares cut down in the period were in non-forest formations. For this reason, although the survey shows that 81.4% of the Amazon is still covered by natural vegetation, only 73.4% is forest – a percentage that is already within the range established by science as the limit for the Amazon to maintain itself or recover, avoiding the process of savannization in the region.

At the same time as the advance of farming and ranching, there has been a powerful advance in mining activities, which grew by 1367% between 1985 and 2022, reaching half a million hectares. Another notable change in the period is the 48% shrinkage of glaciers in the region, due to global warming aggravated by deforestation and changes in the Amazon’s ecosystems for the expansion of economic activities.

Satellite images clearly show that the conversion of forests into pastures and other uses is strongest in Brazil – notably in the Arc of Deforestation, which runs from Pará to Acre, through Mato Grosso and Rondônia and into the south of the state of Amazonas. The same can be seen in the west of the Amazon in Colombia and Venezuela. In Bolivia, the elimination of forests and other ecosystems has opened up a large agricultural area in the department of Santa Cruz, in the south of the Amazon basin. In other Amazonian countries, such as Peru, other use patterns predominate, consisting of a heterogeneous association of agricultural areas.

BOLIVIA – In Bolivia, which accounts for 8.4% of the Amazon territory, with 71.2 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 10%, or 7 million hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 5.7 million hectares (11.8%).

BRAZIL – In Brazil, which accounts for 61.9% of the Amazon territory, with 521.9 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 14%, or 71 million hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 67.4 million hectares (15.2%).

COLOMBIA – In Colombia, which accounts for 6% of the Amazon territory, with 50.3 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 5%, or 3 million hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 2.7 million hectares (5.9%).

ECUADOR – In Ecuador, which accounts for 1.6% of the Amazon territory, with 13.1 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 5%, or 600,000 hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 600,000 hectares (5.4%).

GUYANA – In Guyana, which accounts for 2.5% of the Amazon territory, with 21 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 0.3%, or 700,000 hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 300,000 hectares (0.1%).

FRENCH GUIANA – In French Guiana, which accounts for 1% of the Amazon territory, with 8.4 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 0.6%, or 500,000 hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 100,000 hectares (0.7%).

PERU – In Peru, which accounts for 11.4% of the Amazon territory, with 96.3 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 4%, or 3.6 million hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 2.8 million hectares (3.8%).

SURINAME – In Suriname, which accounts for 1.7% of the Amazon territory, with 14.6 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 1%, or 100,000 hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 100,000 hectares (0.7%).

VENEZUELA – In Venezuela, which accounts for 5.6% of the Amazon territory, with 46.9 million hectares, the area covered by native forest vegetation was reduced by 1%, or 500,000 hectares, between 1985 and 2022. The net loss of forests was 600,000 hectares (1.5%).

ABOUT THE MAPBIOMAS AMAZÔNIA PLATFORM – The MapBiomas Amazônia platform is a tool that allows anyone with internet access to understand the changes in land use throughout the Amazon and the pressures on its forests and natural ecosystems. The information generated is compatible for all countries in the region and provides information on the situation of 18 categories of analysis, called “classes”, which include areas covered by forests, natural grasslands, mangroves, agriculture, pasture, mining, urban areas, rivers, among others. The information is free and also available for download. It allows you to explore the latest collection of annual maps, covering the period between 1985 and 2022, and identify changes in land cover and land use in a given location (national, regional and local) and period (year, five-year period, decades, etc.). The tool also presents statistics in dynamic tables and graphs, with the changes in land use over the period the user requires, and allows them to understand the dynamics of the changes inside and outside an Indigenous Territory or Protected Area.

ABOUT MAPBIOMAS AMAZÔNIA – MapBiomas Amazônia is an initiative led by RAISG with the support of the MapBiomas Network. Initially, the land use mapping tool was developed by MapBiomas to be applied in Brazil and had to be improved with the contribution of RAISG member organizations to adapt the results and analyses to the geography of each country. In this way, existing local knowledge allows us to improve the tool and refine the interpretation of the data. The method used allowed us to standardize the biomes included in the analysis, so that the nine Amazonian countries share the Amazon biome, while Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia also share the Andean biome. MapBiomas Amazonia takes into account the altitudinal variations typical of the Andean Amazon, ranging from the Andean glaciers to the forest formations of the Amazonian plains. The First Collection (2000 – 2017) of annual land cover and land use maps was published in 2019; 2020 brought the Second Collection (1985 – 2018); September 2021 saw the launch of the Third Collection (1985 – 2020). The Fourth Collection covered the period from 1985 to 2021.

ABOUT RAISG – RAISG is the Amazon Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information Network, a consortium of civil society organizations from Amazonian countries focused on the socio-environmental sustainability of the Amazon, with the support of international cooperation. RAISG generates and disseminates knowledge, statistical data and geospatial socio-environmental information on the Amazon, prepared using community protocols for all the countries in the region; it facilitates the visualization of the Amazon as a whole, as well as the threats and pressures that weigh on it. RAISG is the result of cooperation between eight civil society organizations working in six Amazonian countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

ABOUT MAPBIOMAS – MapBiomas is a collaborative network made up of NGOs, universities and technology companies that reveals the transformations of Brazilian territory through science, making knowledge about land use accessible in order to seek conservation and combat climate change. It has produced annual mapping of land cover and use since 1985, validates and prepares reports for each deforestation event detected in Brazil since January 2019 and monitors water surface and fire scars on a monthly basis since 1985. All MapBiomas data, maps, methods and codes are available publicly and free of charge on the initiative’s website.

Disclosure: AViV Comunicação
Bianca D’Luca – 73 8805-9892 – bianca.dluca@avivcomunicacao.com.br
Ingrid Ferreira – 11 97358-2385 – ingrid.ferreira@avivcomunicacao.com.br
Izabela Sanchez – 14 99643-4902 – izabela.sanchez@avivcomunicacao.com.br
Silvia Dias – 11 99191-7456 – silvia.dias@avivcomunicacao.com.br