General

Amazon deforestation drops 61% in January and reaches 167 km²

In the same month of 2022, the affected area was 430 km²

Luciano Nascimento

Published on 12/02/2023 - 14:43

São Luís - MA

floresta Amazônica — © Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

The aggregate area of deforestation in the Amazônia Legal in January 2023 was 167 square kilometers, a reduction of 61% compared to the same month last year, when it reached 430 km². The data was released on Friday (10) by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe in Portuguese), based on alerts made by the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter).

With an area of 5 million square kilometers, which corresponds to 59% of the Brazilian territory, the Legal Amazon is formed by the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and part of Maranhão.

The Deter is a rapid alert survey of evidence of changes in forest cover in the Amazon, carried out by Inpe. The system captures only part of the changes that have occurred, due to the lower resolution of the images/sensors used and also cloud cover restrictions. Therefore, the data can be revised.

According to Inpe, "the system supports the supervision and control of deforestation and forest degradation carried out by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and other agencies related to this issue".