Is Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest Slowing Down?

The Amazon rainforest has been a victim of deforestation for several decades. Have recent efforts slowed it down?

Settha Vongprachanh

The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important ecological hotspots in the world. Boasting the most known biodiversity, the Amazon rainforest is a constant topic of interest for ecologists to research. And to protect.

Figure 1. An image showing the Amazon River basin. The image was taken using Google Earth Pro

Because of its vast number of resources, the Amazon rainforest is exploited in many ways. For the last several decades, the main way the Amazon rainforest has been attacked is through deforestation.

Deforestation in the Amazon has been focused in the Brazilian states of Pará and Mato Grosso. These two states would increase their exportation of beef and soy as a result of building farms in the newly exposed areas. The Brazilian government decided that the increased rate of deforestation was unacceptable. Therefore in 2006, they created the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM), and then the Brazilian Cattle Agreement (BCA) in 2009. These would promise no purchases from any cattle ranches or soy farms that were created from newly deforested land.

To see how effective this was at slowing down deforestation, the Amazon rainforest was looked at in Google Earth Pro before and after 2009. Screenshots were taken in areas of Pará and Mato Grosso and then analyzed using ImageJ.

Pará

An area that visually showed deforestation throughout the years was in northwest Pará, near the cities of Placas and Uruará.

Figure 2. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation in northwest Pará from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

In 2001, this area had around 8900.526 square kilometers of deforested land. This increased to 13061.737 square kilometers in 2009, giving a rate of 520.151 square kilometers per year.

Figure 3. An example of post-moratorium deforestation in northwest Pará from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

From 2009 to 2020, we saw an increase from 13061.737 square kilometers to 15991.995 square kilometers. This gives a rate of 266.387 square kilometers per year, showing a 48.79% decrease in deforestation from before the establishment of the moratoriums.

Mato Grosso

For Mato Grosso, the area that visually showed a lot of deforestation was a large area in the northwest. This area contains a lot of cities and is relatively deeper within the state.

Figure 4. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation in northwest Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

This area had 6662.584 square kilometers of deforestation in 2001, which increased to 14789.597 square kilometers in 2009. Annually, this is a rate of 1015.877 square kilometers, almost two times more than the example from Pará.

Figure 5. An example of post-moratorium deforestation in northwest Mato Grosso from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

After 2009, we saw an increase to 19193.498 square kilometers. This reduced the rate to 400.355 square kilometers per year, an astonishing 60.59% decrease.

So far, it looks like the moratoriums did slow down deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. However, there are still two more areas that have been analyzed.

Xingu River Basin

Figure 6. An image showing the Xingu River basin and the areas that are protected (outlined in red). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

The Xingu River basin is a sub-basin in the Amazon rainforest. It stretches across both Pará and Mato Grosso and contains protected land of several indigenous communities. There have been recent concerns about farms being built close to or within these protected lands.

Figure 7. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation near the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Near the southern region of the Xingu River basin, we see an increase from 77525.103 square kilometers to 111285.595 square kilometers. This shows a rate of 4220.062 square kilometers per year.

Figure 8. An example of post-moratorium deforestation near the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

After the establishment of the moratorium, the area of deforestation grew to 138936.238 square kilometers. This decreased the rate by 40.43% to about 2513.695 square kilometers per year.

Figure 9. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation near the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Traveling to the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin, we see a change from 10262.249 square kilometers to 18592.725 square kilometers. This results in a rate of 1041.309 square kilometers per year.

Figure 10. An example of post-moratorium deforestation near the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Lastly, we see an increase to 22053.790 square kilometers. This results in a rate of 314.642 square kilometers, an astonishing 69.78% decrease.

These stats included every area of deforestation outside of the Xingu River basin. However, it is important to look at the area of deforestation within the basin. Since it is important to maintain the area around the protected lands, data from 2001 and 2020 will be compared.

Figure 11. An example of deforestation within the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro and was colorized using ImageJ.

In 2001, 22743.732 square kilometers were deforested in the southern region of the Xingu River basin. This increased to 42330.595 square kilometers in 2020. About 19586.863 square kilometers were deforested dangerously close to protected land from 2001 to 2020.

Figure 12. An example of deforestation within the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2001 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro and was colorized using ImageJ.

For the northeastern region, about 2076.236 square kilometers were deforested. This increased to 7270.857 in 2020. The amount of area deforested more than tripled within 20 years.

Conclusion

Based on the results, the establishment of the moratoriums was effective at slowing down deforestation in Pará and Mato Grosso. The average percent change from before 2009 to after 2009 was around a decrease of 54.9%. Ultimately, this shows a step in the right direction for the protection of the Amazon rainforest. However, large areas are still being deforested. Especially within the Xingu River basin, the forest has been mostly reduced to the outline of protected areas. As sales of beef and soy increase without the need for deforestation, hopefully, the Amazon rainforest will get the proper protection for the foreseeable future.

References

Barrionuevo, Alexei, 2008, Giants in Cattle Industry Agree to Help Fight Deforestation: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/world/americas/07deforest.html (accessed January 2024).

Branford, Sue, and Torres Maurício, 2017, Amazon Soy Moratorium: defeating deforestation or greenwash diversion?: https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/amazon-soy-moratorium-defeating-deforestation-or-greenwash-diversion/ (accessed January 2024).

Radwin, Maxwell, 2023, Brazil cattle traceability program to limit deforestation in Pará state: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/brazil-cattle-traceability-program-to-limit-deforestation-in-para-state/ (accessed January 2024).

Radwin, Maxwell, 2022, Industrial soy drives deforestation spike in Brazil, satellite images show: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/industrial-soy-drives-deforestation-spike-in-southeastern-brazil-satellite-images-show/ (accessed January 2024).

Wenzel Fernanda, 2021, Deforestation soars 40% in Xingu River Basin in Brazilian Amazon: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/deforestation-surges-in-xingu-one-of-amazons-most-important-basins/ (accessed January 2024).

Wikipedia, n.d, Mato Grosso: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mato_Grosso (accessed January 2024).

Wikipedia, n.d., Pará: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par%C3%A1 (accessed January 2024).

Wikipedia, n.d., Xingu Indigenous Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu_Indigenous_Park (accessed January 2024).

Figure 1. An image showing the Amazon River basin. The image was taken using Google Earth Pro

Figure 2. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation in northwest Pará from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 3. An example of post-moratorium deforestation in northwest Pará from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 4. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation in northwest Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 5. An example of post-moratorium deforestation in northwest Mato Grosso from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 6. An image showing the Xingu River basin and the areas that are protected (outlined in red). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 7. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation near the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 8. An example of post-moratorium deforestation near the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 9. An example of pre-moratorium deforestation near the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2001 (left) and 2009 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 10. An example of post-moratorium deforestation near the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2009 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro.

Figure 11. An example of deforestation within the southern region of the Xingu River basin in Mato Grosso from 2001 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro and was colorized using ImageJ.

Figure 12. An example of deforestation within the northeastern region of the Xingu River basin in Pará from 2001 (left) and 2020 (right). The image was taken using Google Earth Pro and was colorized using ImageJ.