- Between 1985 and 2023, more than 88 million hectares of forest in the Amazon were destroyed. In total, 92.4 million hectares of natural vegetation (both forested and non-forested) have been replaced by economic activities over the past 39 years. These areas have seen an alarming increase in land use for mining (1,063%), agriculture (598%), and livestock (298%).
- Ahead of the upcoming COP16 and COP30 summits, it is urgent to implement policies that strengthen the protective role of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas to curb deforestation.
Ecuador, September 26, 2024 – The Amazon, a complex ecosystem vital to humanity and the planet, is facing one of its most critical moments. Over the last 39 years—from 1985 to 2023—the Amazonian countries have lost more than 88 million hectares of forest (12.5% of its coverage), an area almost as large as Colombia, according to data generated by MapBiomas Amazonia, an initiative of the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information (RAISG). Considering this scenario, it has never been more urgent to strengthen conservation and restoration policies, as well as the protective role of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas in the fight against deforestation.
According to RAISG specialists, based on vegetation and land use monitoring, the Amazon region is undergoing accelerated transformation. Between 1985 and 2023, legal and illegal mining expanded by 1,063%, agriculture by 598%, and cattle ranching by 298% in areas that were previously forests. Many natural coverages disappeared and were replaced by vast expanses of pasture, agricultural lands for soybeans, palm oil, and other monocultures, or turned into large water-filled craters for gold extraction. In the case of mining, soil erosion not only affects forest cover but also the fertile soil, which undermines its recovery capacity and increases the risk of landslides, in addition to all the pollutants involved.
Flooded forests have already been reduced by 4.5 million hectares over the past 39 years (5.4% of their 1985 extent). Their retreat seriously endangers the abundance and biological diversity of the Amazon—especially fish—and thus, the availability of food for nearby populations.
An Alarming Regional Outlook
The analysis includes the eight biomes of the Amazon Region. 71% of the total forest loss in the Amazon occurred in the Amazon biome, the largest in the entire region, present in all nine countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana). 23% was in the tropical savanna Cerrado biome (Brazil), 4% in the Chiquitano dry forest (Bolivia), and 2% was divided between the dry forest Chaco (Bolivia), Pantanal wetland (Brazil), Tucumano-Boliviano biome, as well as the Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), and Bolivian Valleys.
RAISG considers 847 million hectares (8,470,209 km²) of Amazonian territory, based on the combination of three criteria: biogeographic, watershed, and political-administrative boundaries, according to the specifics of each Amazonian country. Thus, the collected data apply to a region defined by: i) the biogeographic boundaries of the Amazon in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana; ii) the Amazon basin limits in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; and iii) the combination of basin (Amazon and Tocantins-Araguaia) and the administrative limits of Brazil’s Legal Amazon. This area includes the river basins of the Amazon, Tocantins-Araguaia, and Marajó rivers (692.6 million hectares).
The Crucial Role of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas
Ahead of the COP16 Biodiversity Summit in Colombia (October 2024) and looking towards COP30 on Climate Change in Brazil (November 2025), RAISG considers these two years key for government leaders and advocacy entities to implement stricter conservation and restoration policies, starting with these areas of loss. “The main challenges are to conserve the intact and low-degradation areas before reaching the so-called ‘point of no return’ for the Amazon and to replace current activities with others that are less harmful to the forest. Most importantly, we must protect Protected Natural Areas and Indigenous Territories, which are acting as barriers against deforestation and degradation,” said Karen Huertas, a specialist with MapBiomas Amazonia.
The fundamental role played by these areas in conserving biological diversity is demonstrated by figures: only 6.5% of natural formations lost in the Amazon occurred in Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas (6.2 out of 92.6 million hectares). The remaining 93.5% (86.5 million hectares) occurred outside these spaces. For millennia, Indigenous peoples have been the best guardians of the forest and other natural areas, thanks to their knowledge and ancestral practices, allowing them to sustainably use resources and provide the soil with the necessary rest for regeneration. Likewise, in the Protected Natural Areas, forest stability is prioritized, and the services that the Amazon provides to humanity—such as oxygen, water for consumption, food, biodiversity, and traditional medicines—are protected.
Despite their invaluable contribution to the fight against climate change, Indigenous peoples live under constant threat. Between 1985 and 2023, their territories experienced a loss of 3.8 million hectares of forests. The expansion of agricultural areas, gold mining, illegal logging, and crops for drug trafficking are some of the pressures on these territories. This situation has endangered the security of local communities and the lives of environmental leaders, while also threatening the cultural diversity of the countries. Similarly, during the same period, Protected Natural Areas lost more than 2.6 million hectares, mainly along their borders, due to invasion for agricultural activities.
If this trend continues, the Amazon will enter a process of irreversible savannization and prairie conversion. The ongoing forest loss will continue to release large amounts of CO2, further accelerating global warming and reducing the habitat of millions of species. For many years, governments have turned their backs on Indigenous, traditional, and local communities, who have managed to conserve forests better than other human groups. But now, it is time to change this reality, to stop the devastation of the Amazon, by strengthening their territorial rights, their active participation in decision-making, and their valuable cultural heritage.
“The governments of the Amazonian countries must act in a coordinated manner to contain the pressures and threats, such as deforestation, mining, and drug trafficking, advance sustainable economic alternatives, and promote environmental restoration at a regional scale. The Belém Declaration and the 14th Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) established important pathways for regional cooperation, such as the Amazon Forest Authorities Network and the Amazon Fire Management Network, which must be carried out with the active participation of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and traditional communities,” concluded Angélica García, executive secretary of RAISG.
MapBiomas Amazonia Event
For more information on the current situation of the Amazon and the actions needed to protect it, RAISG is hosting the event “Towards a Comprehensive Vision of the Amazon: 39 Years of Forest Loss and Conservation Proposals”, where the findings of the report will be discussed along with potential solutions.
Date
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Time
15:00 (Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru)
16:00 (Venezuela and Bolivia)
17:00 (Brazil)
In-person
Hotel Dann Carlton, Avenida República de El Salvador, Quito, Ecuador
Virtual
RAISG YouTube Channel
Register here
https://forms.gle/cXxeS6Db4ts8iNm76
About RAISG
RAISG, the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information is a consortium of civil society organizations from Amazonian countries focused on the socio-environmental sustainability of the Amazon, with support from international cooperation. RAISG generates and disseminates knowledge, statistical data, and geospatial socio-environmental information about the Amazon, developed using community protocols across all countries in the region. It facilitates a comprehensive visualization of the Amazon, as well as the threats and pressures it faces. RAISG is the result of cooperation between eight civil society organizations working in six Amazonian countries: Bolivia (FAN), Brazil (Imazon, ISA), Colombia (Gaia), Ecuador (EcoCiencia), Peru (IBC), Venezuela (Wataniba, Provita)
https://www.raisg.org/
About MapBiomas
MapBiomas originated in Brazil as a multi-institutional initiative involving universities, NGOs, and tech companies with the goal of contributing to the understanding of the transformations of Brazilian territory through the annual map of land cover and use in Brazil. Today, this network brings together more than 70 institutions from Latin America and Indonesia across seven initiatives and fourteen countries, all committed to generating data, methods, tools, and information that guide conservation efforts and decision-making around natural resources. The tools developed by the MapBiomas network for all its initiatives offer information with a spatial resolution of at least 30 meters. The data is processed using automatic classification algorithms through Google Earth Engine’s cloud-based platform.
http://mapbiomas.org/