Driven by advances in the North region and Mato Grosso, the volume of Roundwood extracted from native forests in the country grew 30.1% in 2021 compared to 2020, to 14.8 million cubic meters. It reached the highest level since 2012 (14.9 million).
The growth percentage was the highest since 1990 when the high reached 48.1%. That is what the research Production of Vegetable Extraction and Forestry (PEVS 2021), released on September 29 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), points out.
The result reverses the trend observed in recent years since the volume turned between 11 million and 12 million cubic meters from 2014 to 2020. In this period, there were no retractions, only in 2017 and 2019.
The additional Roundwood harvested in 2021 compared to the previous year was 3.4 million cubic meters.
Most of it – 2.6 million, or 74.8% of the total – was in the North, where the Amazon is located, the region that leads the extraction of timber products, with about 62% of the total (9.2 million cubic meters of Roundwood). In the region, growth from 2020 to 2021 was 38.6%.
The expansion rate was also significant in the Midwest – 16.4%, especially Mato Grosso. In this state, the volume of Roundwood harvested also rose 16.4%, from 3.8 million cubic meters in 2020 to 4.5 million in 2021.
FACTORS FOR THE INCREASE
Expansion of the agricultural frontiers, resumption of civil construction and furniture production after the acute period of the pandemic, growth of illegal deforestation, and increase in the price of wood were some of the factors that may have contributed to the movement, in the assessment of the person responsible for the research, Carlos Alfredo Guedes.
He clarifies that the study does not point out the reasons for this jump but gives indications of what may have happened.
“During the pandemic, many people took the opportunity to remodel their homes and change furniture, affecting the production of wood.
“Some of it is authorized to be cut; not all is illegal logging. But the most significant increase was in agricultural or cattle-raising frontiers, such as the North region and Mato Grosso.
“It is not possible to say for sure that these areas became pasture or agriculture, but that is where the frontiers have grown”, said the technician, to whom the lesser inspection of the activities may have helped the increase.
The value of primary forestry production grew 27.1% in Brazil in 2021 compared to 2020 and reached R$30.1 billion (US$5.6 billion).
AGRICULTURAL AND LIVESTOCK EXPANSION
According to him, there is a correlation between the areas of agricultural and cattle-raising expansion and those where there is more wood extracted from native forests.
Last week, the IBGE released another study that showed that the Brazilian cattle herd reached 224.6 million heads at the end of last year, 3.1% more than in 2020 and a new record.
At the end of 2021, the Midwest concentrated 75.4 million heads, or 33.6% of the national total, while the North region closed the year with 55.7 million heads or 24.8% of the total.
According to Guedes, there was also an impact from wood prices. That is because the increase in Roundwood extracted from native forests was 30.1%, while the increase in production value reached 46%.
“The prices are current, not deflated, but this shows an increase because of the high production costs.
Guedes reinforced that the 2021 numbers for wood products change a curve that had been traced in recent years.
“The quantity extracted has increased a lot. We have been observing a decline in recent years, with few exceptions. Now we have the highest percentage growth since 1990, and we are back to the level of 2012.”
To arrive at these numbers, IBGE uses different sources, such as Ibama’s registry of authorizations and data from municipal and state agencies, which may include illegally extracted wood.
PRODUCTION VALUE
According to the PEVS, the value of primary forest production grew 27.1% in Brazil in 2021 over 2020 and reached R$30.1 billion. It was the second annual increase in a row after falling in 2019. The data includes 4,884 Brazilian municipalities.
SIVICULTURE AND NATIVE FORESTS
Primary forest production includes silviculture, which is the exploitation of timber from cultivated forests, such as eucalyptus and pine, for commercial purposes, and vegetal extraction – which involves unplanted areas of native forests, wood, and food.
Forestry, which since 2000 has accounted for most of the value of production (79.3%), grew by 26.1% in 2021, to R$23.8 billion. Vegetable extraction, on the other hand, yielded R$6.2 billion, up 31.5%.
According to Guedes, the increase in forestry prices, influenced by the growth of online commerce and delivery, is also behind the increase in the value of primary forestry production.
“Of that R$30 billion, almost 80% comes from forestry. And all the prices of forestry products will go up quite a bit in 2021. One thing we observed is that, during the pandemic, there was a change in the habits of the population.
“And then a lot of packaging, boxes, were needed since everyone was ordering delivery. The demand increased, the stock of these products decreased, and, consequently, the price increased”, observed the IBGE technician.
PULP, PAPER, AND CHARCOAL
The value of Roundwood production destined for pulp and paper grew 24.4%, while for other purposes (such as furniture), there was an increase of 28.3%.
On the other hand, charcoal’s production value advanced by 21.8% – the product is used in the steel industry to produce pig iron.
According to the IBGE survey, Brazil’s estimated area of planted forests fell 1.4% in 2021 compared to 2020 and totaled 9.5 million hectares in 2020.
Leader in planted forest area in the country, the Southeast region consolidated its position and was the only one among the five regions to register growth in 2021.
The increase was 0.9%, or 30,700 hectares. The region registered 3.6 million hectares of planted forests, 38% of the national total.
The South is second in the regional ranking, with 3.1 million hectares, or 32.6% of Brazil’s total.
Together, the Southeast and South regions concentrate 70.6% of the planted forest area in the country.
With information from Valor Econômico