Deforestation Report (SAD) December 2011

S. Hayashi, C. Souza Jr., M. Sales, A. Veríssimo, Forest Transparency for the Brazilian Amazon December 2011, Imazon (2012).
In December 2011, most part (76 %) of the forest area of the Brazilian Amazon was covered by clouds.

This compromised the detection of the deforestation and forest degradation for this month through the images of the MODIS used by SAD. Under these conditions only 40 km² of deforestation were detected in December 2011 in the Brazilian Amazon.
From the 40 km² of deforestation detected in December 2011, 24 square kilometers (60%) occurred in Mato Grosso, 4 square kilometers (15%) in Pará, 5.5.square kilometers (14%) in Rondônia, 2.5 square kilometers (6%) in Roraima and 2 square kilometers (5%) in Amazonas.
The deforestation accumulated in the period of August 2011 to December 2011, corresponding to the five first months of the current Deforestation Calendar, has reached 568 square kilometers. There was 26% reduction regarding the same previous period (August 2010 to December 2010) when the deforestation totaled 772 square kilometers.The degraded forests in the Brazilian Amazon totaled only 94 square kilometers in December 2011. Most part (92%) occurred in Mato Grosso followed by far by Pará (6%), and Amazonas (2%).
The forest degradation accumulated in the period of August 2011 to December 2011 totaled 1.380 square kilometers. Regarding the previous period (August 2010 to December 2010) there was a reduction of 59%, when the forest degradation totaled 3.326 square kilometers.In December 2011, the deforestation detected by SAD compromised 3.4 million tons of equivalent CO2.
In the accumulated period (August 2011 – December 2011) the emissions of equivalent CO2 related to the deforestation totaled 38 million tons which represents a reduction of 16.6% regarding the previous period (August 2010 to December 2010).
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