Amazon Deforestation Increased Again, According to INPE Data

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The alerts on deforestation in the Amazon in October recorded by the DETER system, of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), have climbed again in relation to the same month last year.

The satellites recorded a loss of 554.71 km², compared to 526.66 km² in October 2018 – a five percent increase.

Although the pace of devastation has slowed in relation to the losses observed in August and September, this is the seventh consecutive month of the year showing higher figures than in 2018.

According to DETER, the accumulated area from January 1st to October 31st has reached 8,409 km² – an increase of 83 percent in relation to the same period last year, which experienced a loss of 4,602 km².

The deforestation rates observed in the first ten months of this year are higher than those detected by DETER in the full 12 months of the three previous years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Deforestation continued to rise even with the presence of the Armed Forces in the forest, as Estado reported in September.

Army

The fires, the main purpose of military action in the region, in fact, retreated, reaching the lowest number for October in the INPE historical series. But as the forest continues to be cut down, experts caution that the fires could return strongly.

DETER is a real-time system that guides inspection and is not used as an official deforestation gauge. This number is provided by PRODES, also from INPE, which always records deforestation between the months of August of a year and July of the following year.

As such, DETER works as an indication of what is happening on the field and, in general, the high or low trend is confirmed by PRODES later. As it “sees” more, PRODES eventually provides even higher numbers.

Even considering the reference period for deforestation – August from one year to July of the following year – the scenario is also poor.

Between August 1st and October 31st, DETER recorded a loss of 3,704 km² – more than half (54 percent) of all that was observed between August 2018 and July of this year – 6,840 km².

Source: Estado de S. Paulo.