The Amazon has lost an “irreversible” amount of vegetation, roughly the size of an NT, in 36 years.

Key points
  • Figures are based on annual satellite monitoring since 1985.
  • Brazil, which owns about two-thirds of the Amazon, is also wreaking havoc.
  • The country accounted for 84 percent of all deforestation during this period.
The report says the Amazon region has lost 10 percent of its natural vegetation, mostly rainforest, in nearly four decades.
From 1985 to 2021, deforestation has increased from 490,000 square kilometers to 1,250,000 square kilometers, an unprecedented devastation in the Amazon, according to the Amazon Geo-Referenced Social and Environmental Information Network, or RAISG.

For comparison, the Northern Territory covers an area of ​​about 1.35 million square kilometers. km.

Figures calculated based on annual satellite monitoring since 1985 in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana.
The report is the result of a collaboration between RAISG and MapBiomas, a network of Brazilian non-profit organizations, universities and technology startups.

“The losses were huge, almost irreversible and with no hope of recovery,” RAISG, a consortium of civil society organizations from countries in the region, said in a statement.

Deforestation of the Amazon

Figures calculated based on annual satellite monitoring since 1985 in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. Source: AARP / AP

“The data signal a yellow light and give a sense of urgency to the need for coordinated, decisive and convincing international action.”

Brazil, which owns about two-thirds of the Amazon, is also wreaking havoc. In nearly four decades, 19 percent of its rainforests have been destroyed, largely due to the expansion of animal husbandry supported by the opening of roads.
The country accounted for 84 percent of all deforestation during this period.

Nearly half of Brazil’s carbon dioxide emissions come from deforestation.

According to a study published in 2021 in the journal Nature, the destruction is so great that the eastern Amazon has ceased to be a sink or sink of carbon for the Earth and has become a source of carbon.
As of 2021, 74 percent of the Amazon area was covered by rainforest and nine percent by other types of natural vegetation.

The RAISG estimates that the region of 8.5 million square kilometers is home to 47 million people.

Brazil Deforestation Amazon

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed slightly last year, a year after a 15-year high, according to carefully monitored data released Wednesday, November 30, 2022. Source: AARP / AP

“At least about 75 billion metric tons of carbon is stored in the Amazon,” said Woods Hole Research Center researcher Wayne Walker.

“If all that carbon were to go into the atmosphere immediately, it would be about seven times the amount of global annual emissions.”