São Paulo, Brazil – Deforestation identified in Indigenous Lands located in the Brazilian Amazon has seen a 42% decrease between August 2023 and March 2024, dropping from 125km² of devastation to 73km². This marks the lowest level of destruction detected in the region since 2018.
The data was released on Wednesday (17) by the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors and analyzes the main human activities causing degradation in the Amazon using satellite imagery and information databases.
According to the report, the Apyterewa Indigenous land, located in the state of Pará, underwent a successful disintrusion process after spending four consecutive years as the indigenous reserve most affected by illegal deforestation in the Amazon. Now, following security forces’ actions to remove land invaders and prevent environmental crimes, researchers say that Apyterewa Land has not appeared on the list of most deforested areas for four months.
In 2020, Imazon registered the all-time record for deforestation in Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon for the period analyzed, since 2008, when monitoring began, with the destruction of 269km² of area.
(Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil)
In addition to Indigenous Lands, Imazon also identified an even more significant reduction in deforestation in the Amazon forest overall. According to the Institute, when considering the entire territory, deforestation drop reaches 60% between August 2023/March 2024 to August 2022/March 2023, from 4,912 km² of cleared forest to 1,948 km².
Of the nine Brazilian states in the Amazon region, Tocantins and Amapá haven’t cleared a single square kilometer. Meanwhile, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Roraima led the ranking.
