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Calculating Deforestation Figures for the Amazon
These figures are calculated from estimates provided by the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The figures only refer to the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest.
According to a study released in September 2009 by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), at least 20 percent land deforested in the Brazilian Amazon is regrowing forest.
| Period | | Estimated Remaining
Forest Cover
in the Brazilian Amazon
(sq. km) | | Annual forest loss
(sq. km) | | Percent of 1970
cover remaining | | Total forest loss
since 1970
(sq. km) |
| pre-1970 | | 4,100,000 | | | | | | |
| 1970 | | 4,001,600 | | | | 97.6% | | |
| 1977 | | 3,955,870 | | 21,130 | | 96.5% | | 144,130 |
| 1978-1987 | | 3,744,570 | | 21,130 | | 91.3% | | 355,430 |
Deforestation Figures for Brazil 1988-present
Year | Deforestation
[sq mi] | Deforestation
[sq km] | Change
[%] |
| | | |
| 1988 | 8,127 | 21,050 | |
| 1989 | 6,861 | 17,770 | -16% |
| 1990 | 5,301 | 13,730 | -23% |
| 1991 | 4,259 | 11,030 | -20% |
| 1992 | 5,323 | 13,786 | 25% |
| 1993 | 5,751 | 14,896 | 8% |
| 1994 | 5,751 | 14,896 | 0% |
| 1995 | 11,220 | 29,059 | 95% |
| 1996 | 7,012 | 18,161 | -38% |
| 1997 | 5,107 | 13,227 | -27% |
| 1998 | 6,712 | 17,383 | 31% |
| 1999 | 6,664 | 17,259 | -1% |
| 2000 | 7,037 | 18,226 | 6% |
| 2001 | 7,014 | 18,165 | 0% |
| 2002 | 8,260 | 21,394 | 17% |
| 2003 | 9,748 | 25,247 | 19% |
| 2004 | 10,588 | 27,423 | 9% |
| 2005 | 7,276 | 18,846 | -31% |
| 2006 | 5,447 | 14,109 | -49% |
| 2007 | 4,490 | 11,631 | -18% |
| 2008 | 4,984 | 12,911 | 11% |
| 2009 | <2,705 | <7,008 | N/A |
All figures derived from official National
Institute of Space Research (INPE) data. Individual state figures.
*For the 1978-1988 period the figures represent
the average annual rates of deforestation.
Recent news on deforestation in the Amazon
Peru delays oil drilling in the Amazon to consult with indigenous peoples
(05/20/2013)
Peru has delayed auctioning off 27 oil blocs in the Amazon in order to conduct legally-required consultations with indigenous groups in the region, reports the Guardian. Perupetro S.A., Peru's state oil and gas company, has announced it will auction 9 blocs off the Pacific coast, but will hold auctioning off the controversial oil blocs in the Amazon rainforest at least until later this year.
What if companies actually had to compensate society for environmental destruction?
(04/29/2013)
The environment is a public good. We all share and depend on clean water, a stable atmosphere, and abundant biodiversity for survival, not to mention health and societal well-being. But under our current global economy, industries can often destroy and pollute the environment—degrading public health and communities—without paying adequate compensation to the public good. Economists call this process "externalizing costs," i.e. the cost of environmental degradation in many cases is borne by society, instead of the companies that cause it. A new report from TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), conducted by Trucost, highlights the scale of the problem: unpriced natural capital (i.e. that which is not taken into account by the global market) was worth $7.3 trillion in 2009, equal to 13 percent of that year's global economic output.
Featured video: Earth Day message from indigenous tribes in the Peruvian Amazon
(04/23/2013)
A new video by Alianza Arkana includes an Earth Day message from the indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon who are facing the existential threats of logging and fossil fuel development on their traditional lands.
Judge halts military-backed dam assessment in Brazil's Amazon
(04/17/2013)
A federal court in Brazil has suspended the use of military and police personnel during technical research on the controversial São LuÃz do Tapajós Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. The military and police were brought in to stamp down protests from indigenous people living along the Tapajós River, but the judge decreed that impacted indigenous groups must give free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) before any furter studies can be done on the proposed dam. However, the decision is expected to be appealed.
Landowner who allegedly ordered Amazon murders acquitted
(04/10/2013)
Jose Rodrigues Moreira, a Brazilian landowner who allegedly ordered the killings of Amazon activists Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria, was acquitted this week due to lack of evidence. But, the two men who carried out the assassinations, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento, were found guilty and sent to 42 and 45 years of jail respectively.
Featured video: stemming human-caused fires in the Amazon
(04/09/2013)
A new series of 5 films highlights how people use fire in the Amazon rainforest and how such practices can be mitigated. Collectively dubbed "Slash & Burn" each film explores a different aspect of fire-use in the Amazon. In recent years the Amazon has faced unprecedented droughts, possibly linked to climate change and vast deforestation, making the issue of human-started fires even more important.
Killings over land continues in the Amazon
(04/04/2013)
On Wednesday, in the Brazilian state of Pará, the trial begins of three men accused of murdering José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo, who had campaigned against loggers and ranchers for years. Their assassinations in May 2011 generated international outrage, just like that of Chico Mendes, 25 years ago, and that of the American-born nun Dorothy Stang in 2005.
After decades of turning a blind eye, Peru declares state of emergency due to oil contamination in Amazon
(03/26/2013)
The Peruvian government has declared an environmental state of emergency after finding elevated levels of lead, barium, and chromium in the Pastaza River in the Amazon jungle, reports the Associated Press. Indigenous peoples in the area have been complaining for decades of widespread contamination from oil drilling, but this is the first time the Peruvian government has acknowledged their concerns. Currently 84 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is covered by potential oil blocs, leading to conflict with indigenous people and environmental degradation.
Featured video: Saving the Amazon through maps
(02/20/2013)
In a new video ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, talks about recent—and historical—efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest through map-making and technology. Today scientists like Plotkin are teaching indigenous people how to digitally map their territory to win land rights over the forest they've used for centuries.
Jaguars, tapirs, oh my!: Amazon explorer films shocking wildlife bonanza in threatened forest
(02/19/2013)
Watching a new video by Amazon explorer, Paul Rosolie, one feels transported into a hidden world of stalking jaguars, heavyweight tapirs, and daylight-wandering giant armadillos. This is the Amazon as one imagines it as a child: still full of wild things. In just four weeks at a single colpa (or clay lick where mammals and birds gather) on the lower Las Piedras River, Rosolie and his team captured 30 Amazonian species on video, including seven imperiled species. However, the very spot Rosolie and his team filmed is under threat: the lower Las Piedras River is being infiltrated by loggers, miners, and farmers following the construction of the Trans-Amazon highway.
Will Amazon species lose the climate change race?
(02/14/2013)
Deforestation could increase the risk of biodiversity loss in the Amazon by forcing species to migrate further in order to remain at equilibrium with changing climates, says new research. "As migration models are made more realistic through the inclusion of multiple climatic, biotic, abiotic and human factors, the predicted distances between current and future climate analogues invariably increases," Kenneth Feeley, lead author of the paper published in Global Change Biology, told mongabay.com.
From slash-and-burn to Amazon heroes: new video series highlights agricultural transformation
(01/31/2013)
A new series of short films is celebrating the innovation of rural farmers in the Manu region of Peru. Home to jaguars, macaws, and tapirs, the Manu region is also one of the top contenders for the world's most biodiverse place. It faces a multitude of threats from road-building to mining to gas and oil concessions. Still the impact of smallscale slash-and-burn farming—once seen as the greatest threat to the Amazon and other rainforest—may be diminishing as farmers, like the first film's Reynaldo (see below), turn to new ways of farming, ones that preserve the forest while providing a better life overall.
Illegally logged trees to start calling for help
(01/24/2013)
Illegal loggers beware: trees will soon be calling—literally—for backup. The Brazilian government has begun fixing trees with a wireless device, known as Invisible Tracck, which will allow trees to contact authorities after being felled and moved.
Gold mine approved in French Guiana's only national park
(01/15/2013)
Tensions have risen in the small Amazonian community of Saül in French Guiana after locals discovered that the French government approved a large-scale gold mining operation near their town—and inside French Guiana's only national park—against their wishes. Run by mining company, Rexma, locals and scientists both fear that the mine would lead to deforestation, water pollution, and a loss in biodiversity for a community dependent on the forest and ecotourism.
Forests, farming, and sprawl: the struggle over land in an Amazonian metropolis
(12/04/2012)
The city of Parauapebas, Brazil is booming: built over the remains of the Amazon rainforest, the metropolis has grown 75-fold in less than 25 years, from 2,000 people upwards of 150,000. But little time for urban planning and both a spatial and mental distance from the federal government has created a frontier town where small-scale farmers struggle to survive against racing sprawl, legal and illegal mining, and a lack of investment in environmental protection. Forests, biodiversity, and subsistence farmers have all suffered under the battle for land. In this, Parauapebas may represent a microcosm both of Brazil's ongoing problems (social inequality, environmental degradation, and deforestation) and opportunity (poverty alleviation, reforestation, and environmental enforcement).
Belo Monte mega-dam halted again by high Brazilian court, appeal likely but difficult
(08/15/2012)
A high federal court in Brazil has ruled that work on the Belo Monte dam in the Brazilian Amazon be immediately suspended. Finding that the government failed to properly consult indigenous people on the dam, the ruling is the latest in innumerable twists and turns regarding the massive dam, which was first conceived in the 1970s, and has been widely criticized for its impact on tribal groups in the region and the Amazon environment. In addition the Regional Federal Tribunal (TRF1) found that Brazil's Environmental Impact Assessment was flawed since it was conducted after work on the dam had already begun.
Evidence of 'isolated' indigenous people found in Peru where priest is pushing highway
(08/14/2012)
Evidence of indigenous people living in "voluntary isolation" in a remote part of the Amazon has been found where an Italian Catholic priest is campaigning for Peru’s government to build a highway. The discovery is controversial because the priest has questioned the existence of the isolated people, sometimes referred to as uncontacted, who live without regular contact with anyone else.
Human rights court favors indigenous tribe over Ecuadorian government in oil battle
(07/31/2012)
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has found in favor of a Kichwa community's right to consultation prior to industrial projects on their land in a ruling that could have implications for many indigenous peoples across the Americas. The court found that the government of Ecuador violated the indigenous people's rights by allowing the Argentine oil company, Compania General de Combustibles (CGC), on their land without proper consultation.
Experts: sustainable logging in rainforests impossible
(07/19/2012)
Industrial logging in primary tropical forests that is both sustainable and profitable is impossible, argues a new study in Bioscience, which finds that the ecology of tropical hardwoods makes logging with truly sustainable practices not only impractical, but completely unprofitable. Given this, the researchers recommend industrial logging subsidies be dropped from the UN's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. The study, which adds to the growing debate about the role of logging in tropical forests, counters recent research making the case that well-managed logging in old-growth rainforests could provide a "middle way" between conservation and outright conversion of forests to monocultures or pasture.
Brazil cripples illegal gold mining operations in indigenous territory
(07/18/2012)
Brazilian police have arrested 26 people and confiscated gold and aircraft in a coordinated effort to tackle illegal gold-mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Reserve, reports the BBC. Along with illegal miners the year-long investigation also arrested complicit airplane pilots, engineers, and business people in a bid to undercut the trade's funders and infrastructure.
more news
Charts and graphs for the Amazon forest
| FOREST LOSS |
[ large medium small ] | Deforestation in the Brazlian Amazon, 1988-present
60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming.
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[ large medium small ] | Causes of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 2000-2005
The above pie chart showing deforestation in the Amazon by cause is based on the median figures for estimate ranges. Please note the low estimate for large-scale agriculture. Between 2000-2005 soybean cultivation reesulted in a small overall percentage of direct deforestation. Nevertheless the role of soy is quite significant in the Amazon. As explained by Dr. Philip Fearnside, "Soybean farms cause some forest clearing directly. But they have a much greater impact on deforestation by consuming cleared land, savanna, and transitional forests, thereby pushing ranchers and slash-and-burn farmers ever deeper into the forest frontier. Soybean farming also provides a key economic and political impetus for new highways and infrastructure projects, which accelerate deforestation by other actors."
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[ medium small ] | Deforestation in Brazil, 1978-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Amazônia Legal State, Brazil, 1988-2005
Deforestation in Amazônia Legal State, Brazil, 1988-2005 measured stated-by-state by percent share of total forest loss
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Amazônia Legal State, Brazil, 1988-2005
Deforestation in Amazônia Legal State, Brazil, 1988-2005 State-by-state contribution to total forest loss
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Acre State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Amapá State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Amazonas State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Maranhão State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Mato Grosso State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Pará State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Rondônia State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Roraima State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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[ large medium ] | Deforestation in Tocantins State, Brazil, 1988-2005
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| FOREST COVER |
[ large medium small ] | Amazon biomass distribution, by vegetation type
The biomass range (metric tons per hectare) for general vegetation types in the Amazon Basin. The authors report the following distribution of vegetation category for the basin: Old growth terra firme forest (62.3% of the legal Amazon [(8 235 430 sq km]); Floodplain and inundated forest (4.19%); Secondary forest (1.67%); Woodland savanna (24.47%); and Grass/shrub savanna (4.79%). The authors report average biomass ranges as follows: Dense forest 272.5 Mt/ha, Open forest 200.2 Mt/ha, Bamboo forest 212.3 Mt/ha, Liana/dry forest 189.7 Mt/ha, Seasonal/deciduous forest 225.6 Mt/ha, and Varzea flooded forest 248.3 Mt/ha. Image produced by Rhett A. Butler using data from the authors.
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| AGRICULTURE |
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[ medium ] | Soy expansion in the Brazilian Amazon, 1990-2005
Total deforestation and area of soybean cultivation across states in the Brazilian Amazon. Overall soybean cultivation makes up only a small portion of deforestation, though its role is accelerating. Further, soybean expansion and the associated infrastructure development and farmer displacement is driving deforestation by other actors. Note: some soybean farms are established on already degraded rainforest lands and neighboring cerrado ecosystems. Therefore it would be inappropriate to assume the area of soybean planting represents its actual role in deforestation.
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[ medium small ] | Soy expansion and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 1990-2005
Annual deforestation rates and annual soy expansion for states in the Brazilian Amazon 1990-2005. Note that the 1995-1996 and 1998-1999 years were negative and do not show up on the chart. Graphs based on Brazilian government data.
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[ large medium small ] | Projected soybean exports for the U.S. and Brazil, 2004-2015
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[ large medium ] | Cattle production in Brazil, 1977-2007
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[ large medium ] | Production and total supply of cattle in Brazil, 1960-2007
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[ large medium ] | Soybean oil crush in Brazil, 1981-2006
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[ large medium ] | Sugar cane production & export for Brazil, 1960-2006
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[ large medium ] | World soybean production, 1980-2003
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[ large medium ] | Soy and corn acreage planted and projected in the United States
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[ large medium ] | Soy and corn acreage planted and projected in the United States
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[ large medium ] | Forecast world soy trade market share for the U.S. and Brazil, 2004-2016
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[ medium ] | World soybean exports, 1990-2015
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Deforestation images
Pictures of deforestation
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