Deforestation report for the Brazilian Amazon (March 2015) SAD

Fonseca, A., Souza Jr., C. & Veríssimo, A. 2015. Deforestation report for the Brazilian Amazon (March 2015) SAD (p. 10). Belém: Imazon.

In March 2015, more than half (53%) of the forest area of the Brazilian Amazon was covered by clouds, a cover lower than that in March 2014 (58%).  The States with the largest cloud cover were Roraima (86%), Pará (67%) and Amapá (65%). For the period analyzed and under those cloud conditions, 58 square kilometers of deforestation were detected by SAD in the Brazilian Amazon. That represents an increase of 195% in relation to March 2014 when deforestation totaled 20 square kilometers.
In March 2015, deforestation was to a large degree concentrated in Mato Grosso (76%) and Amazonas (13%), with a lower occurrence in Rondônia (8%), Tocantins (2%) and Pará (1%).
The accumulated deforestation for the period of August 2014 to March 2015, corresponding to the first eight months of the official calendar for measuring deforestation, reached 1,761 square kilometers. There was a 214% increase in deforestation in relation to the previous period (August 2013 to March 2014) when it reached 560 square kilometers.
Degraded forests in the Brazilian Amazon totaled 15 square kilometers in March 2015. In relation to March 2014, when forest degradation totaled 5 square kilometers, there was a 200% increase.
Download