Activity Report 2023

Letter from the Executive Board

Hope. This was the feeling that overflowed through the veins of the Amazonians in 2023. After five consecutive years of advancing deforestation, the number of deforested areas fell by 22% between August 2022 and July 2023, compared to the same previous period, the so-called “deforestation calendar”. These were the data from the Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite (Prodes), of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). A reduction that had already been shown on a monthly basis by Imazon’s Sistema de Alerta de Desmatamento (SAD) [Deforestation Warning System], which has been monitoring the forest through satellite imagery since 2008.

As our data is published every month, it also helps to compare the calendar from January to December, which showed an even greater drop in the suppression of primary forests: 62% between 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, the federal government has promised to eliminate devastation in the Amazon biome by 2030, an essential action to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. And, consequently, help the world mitigate the climate crisis, which is visibly weighing on us today. This is an urgent demand for Brazil, which is suffering more and more from the damage caused by climate change.

According to a survey by the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), in a decade, from 2013 to 2022, mayors had to declare a state of emergency or a state of public calamity 58,469 times, 55% of which were in the past three years alone. And this was primarily due to intense rains or droughts, extreme phenomena that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been warning which will become more frequent and more intense if countries do not reduce their emissions.

Droughts were also monitored through satellite imagery by Imazon, which carries out the technical coordination of the platform MapBiomas Água [MapBiomas Water]. According to the tool, which measures water surface throughout the country, both the Amazon and Brazil are becoming drier, which seriously threatens the lives of traditional peoples and communities who depend directly on rivers for access to food, healthcare and education, in addition to harming the entire Brazilian population, which depends on water balance for food and energy production.

For that reason, as well as monitoring the forest and waters using satellite imagery, Imazon has also been one of the main research institutions to come up with solutions to the issues affecting the Amazon. And one of the biggest issues is land grabbing. In an unprecedented research published on the subject in 2023, the institute showed that Pará had only taken back one of the more than 10,000 properties that had been canceled on suspicion of land grabbing in the registry offices in 12 years. The publication pointed out that in order to begin to resolve the land-related chaos in the state, it is first necessary to scan and organize land ownership data, thus making it possible to cross-reference such data. After that, the government needs to take action to take back and allocate the land that has been grabbed, with priority given to conservation.

Another major problem affecting the Amazon is the expansion of cattle ranching on illegally cleared land. Data from the MapBiomas Network shows that around 90% of the area cleared since 1985 in the region has already become pasture. This is because Brazil still does not have full traceability of the cattle chain, which makes it easier for illegal products to enter the market. According to Radar Verde [Green Radar], a transparency index for cattle ranching in the Amazon led by Imazon and the ‘O Mundo Que Queremos’ [The World We Want] Institute, 92% of the meatpackers and 95% of the largest retailers operating in the region have no control over the chain. In addition, there is lack of transparency and access to data to propose immediate solutions.

The lack of incentives for the bioeconomy is also one of the problems that has hindered socio-environmental development in the Amazon. And in order to propose solutions, Imazon has been working on the project Amazônia 2030 by publishing a series of studies in this and other key areas for the region. In 2023 alone, the initiative released 11 studies indicating sustainable paths for public policies.

And speaking of government management, in 2023 Imazon also released another edition of the IPS Amazônia, the Social Progress Index for each of the 772 municipalities in the region. After analyzing 47 life quality indicators in areas such as health, education, security and housing, the IPS 2023 showed once again that deforestation is related to low development in the Amazon. According to this index, the municipalities that have destroyed the most forest over the past three years have had the worst social performance.

In addition, Imazon has continued to apply solutions identified in scientific research, such as forest restoration, out in the field. In 2023 alone, the institute planted 30.6 thousand native tree seedlings to recover deforested areas in settlements in Pará. After an interview with the beneficiaries, short-, medium- and long-term fruit species were chosen, such as açaí, cupuaçu and Brazil nut, which will guarantee new sources of income for the families. The work also included technical assistance from the institute to help the plants develop.

Another highlight of our work in the field takes place in Northern Pará, where the largest block of protected areas in the world is located. In the territory, we support more than 100 community environmental agents trained by Imazon and by the Pará State Forestry and Biodiversity Development Institute (Ideflor-Bio), and we conduct projects to encourage the bioeconomy, community-based tourism and communication. In 2023, we also completed
the document Plano de Manejo da Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) Jará [Management Plan for the Jará Environmental Protection Area – APA], which shall guide the sustainable use of the conservation unit.

This is just to highlight a few examples of our work in 2023, a year in which we published 54 research papers, appeared 4 thousand times in the media and reached 90 thousand followers on social media. In addition, we were able to renew our hope as an Amazonian institution that, if the solutions indicated by science and the knowledge of traditional peoples and communities are applied, the Amazon can be a region free of deforestation and socio environmentally developed. And with this strengthened mission, we invite you to read the following pages and learn more about the paths we traveled in 2023. We hope that this reading will also renew your commitment to uphold the Amazon!

Ritaumaria Pereira
Chief Executive Officer

Verônica Oki
Chief Administration Officer

Tap here to read the full Activity Report