Deforestation in Brazil’s savanna region surges to highest level since 2019

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Deforestation surged in Brazil’s Cerrado, a vast tropical savanna region, by nearly 45% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to full-December data released Friday by the government’s monitoring agency.

The National Institute for Space Research reported that 7,852 square kilometers (3,000 square miles) of vegetation had been torn down in the Cerrado biome between January and December 2023, especially in the states of Maranhao, Bahia and Tocantins.

This is the highest level since 2019, when the agency recorded its first full year of deforestation in the Cerrado, home to more than 800 species of birds and nearly 200 mammals, according to the Switzerland-based non-profit World Wildlife Fund, or 30% of the nation’s total biodiversity.

Since taking office a year ago, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has halved Amazon deforestation, which reached a 15-year high under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Even though results have been uneven, the leftist leader has promised to promote development in the region that makes sustainable use of its resources.

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Unlike in the Amazon, most deforestation in the Cerrado occurs on private land and part of it is legal, said Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, or IPAM, a Brazilian nonprofit. Since a vast majority of the federal government’s operations are in public forested areas, other actions must be taken, she said.

In the Cerrado, land owners are allowed to cut down between 65% and 80% of trees on their properties, compared to 20% in the Amazon, which also has a lot more protected areas, such as natural reserves and Indigenous territories.

“Many people are saying that the Cerrado is being offered as a sacrifice,” said Alencar, the IPAM science director. “Internationally, the Cerrado is not very well known. If it had a name like the Amazon, we would have more (public) policies that benefit the conservation of the biome.”

Some of the most emblematic animals include jaguars, giant armadillos and anteaters, tapirs and maned wolves. The region is also one of Brazil’s major water reserves.

The situation in the Cerrado comes in contrast with Lula’s vow to end net deforestation by 2030 — two years beyond his current term.

Brazil is hiring new personnel for its understaffed environmental agencies and the nation also announced in September that it will provide financial support to municipalities that have most reduced deforestation. The measure, however, only applies to the Amazon region, not the Cerrado.