Forest Transparency for the Legal Amazon (April and May 2010)

Hayashi, S., Souza Jr, C., Sales, M. & Veríssimo, A. 2010.

There was a reduction in deforestation for April and May, 2010 if compared to the same previous period. In April, deforestation reached 65 square kilometers (47% drop in relation to April, 2009) and in May totaled 96 square kilometers (39% reduction in relation to May, 2009).
However, when accumulated from August, 2009 to May, 2010, deforestation reached 1,161 square kilometers as opposed to 1,084 kilometers during the previous period (August, 2008 to May, 2009). That represents a small increase of 7% in deforestation during the current period.
In April, 2010, deforestation occurred mainly in Mato Grosso (59%), followed by Pará (23%) and Rondônia (10%). The remainder occurred in Amazonas (6%) and Acre (2%). In May, 2010, deforestation was greatest in Amazonas (33%) followed by Mato Grosso (26%), Rondônia (22%), Pará (17%) and Acre with only 2%.
Accumulated deforestation for the period of August, 2009 to May, 2010 resulted in the commitment of 76 million tons of equivalent CO2 subject to direct and future emissions due to burning and decomposition events. That represents a 9% increase in relation to same previous period (August, 2008 to May, 2009) when the forest carbon affected by deforestation represented 69 million tons of equivalent CO2.
In relation to forest degradation (forests intensely exploited by logging activity eand/or fires) the total area affected in April and May, 2010 was 64 square kilometers.
The deforestation data may be underestimated due to cloud cover during the period; it was only possible to monitor 45% and 50% of the Amazon in April and May, 2010 respectively.
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