Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached 1,606 km² in August, the largest area of ​​the decade in the month

Accumulated since January, 7,715 km2, it was also the worst in 10 years

An area of ​​1,606 km² was deforested in the Brazilian Amazon just in August, the highest rate for the month in 10 years. With that, the accumulated since January was also the worst of the decade. The data are from Imazon’s Deforestation Alert System (SAD, in Portuguese), which monitors the forest through satellite images since 2008.

This year, August was the fifth month in which deforestation reached the biggest area since 2012. March, April, May, and July also had the largest destroyed forest area in 10 years. Compared to August 2020, the deforested area this year is 7% higher. And the accumulated from January to August, 7,715 km², is 48% larger than in the same period last year. 

“If we want to prevent the year from ending with the largest deforested area of ​​the decade, we urgently need to adopt more effective actions”, said Imazon’s researcher Antônio Fonseca.

In August, just like in previous months, only two of the nine states in the Brazilian Amazon registered more than half of deforestation in the region: Pará and Amazonas. Both added up 1,050 km² (66%) of deforested area in the period.