Deforestation alerts in the Amazon fell by half, but rose consistently in the Cerrado biome during the first year of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third presidential term, when compared to the last year of Jair Bolsonaro’s term (Liberal Party). The 2023 consolidated data were released on Friday (5) by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe, in Portuguese).
The Deter system, which analyzes data live and issues alerts, showed an area of 5,141 km² under alert in the Amazonian territory in 2023, against 10,277 km² recorded in 2022 – a 50% fall.
Regarding the Cerrado biome, 7,828 km² were under alert in 2023. In the previous year, there were 5,462 km², which represents a 43% increase.
It is important to highlight that Deter provides numbers on deforestation alerts, and the system's role is to support in-person or remote inspection actions. Brazil's official deforestation rate is calculated by another Inpe system, Prodes, which carries out detailed monitoring. Prodes figures are released between August of one year and July of the following year.
Alerts in each state
The data Inpe released on Friday (5) shows details about deforestation alerts in each Brazilian state. In the Amazonian territory, Pará was the state with the largest area under alert: 1,903 km² (equivalent to 37% of the state’s total area). Pará is followed by Mato Grosso state, with 1,408 km² (27% of its area).
The state with the largest area under alert in the Cerrado region was Maranhão, with 1,765 km² (around 23% of the total), closely followed by Bahia (1,727 km², or 22% of its total area) and Tocantins (1,604 km², representing 20% of the state’s area).
