Amazon accumulates 762,000 km² of deforestation in a period of 40 years, says study

Until last year, the accumulated deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, in a period of 40 years of analysis, totalled 762,979 square kilometres (km²), corresponding to three states of São Paulo and 184 million football fields. It reveals that the report “The Future Climate of Amazon”, led by the researcher Antonio Donato Nobre, of the Earth Science System Centre of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The report, released at the Crisantempo Suite, in the city of São Paulo, meets several studies about the region and is intended to lay population. The goal is to universalise access to more than 200 scientific studies and articles and diminish what the researcher calls "ignorance" about environmental problems.

Nobre estimates that the occupation of the Amazon already destroyed 42 billion trees, i.e. more than 2000 trees per minute, uninterrupted, in a period of 40 years. Adding to deforestation and degradation (considering green areas, but useless) forest, the destruction of the Amazon reaches more than 2,062 million km².

According to the report, deforestation may threaten the ability of the forest to lower the atmospheric pressure, exporting its moisture to other regions by so-called "flying rivers" and regulate the climate, leading to drought. The effects on the Southeast Region, specifically in the state of São Paulo, which is facing a major drought are still being studied, but Nobre believes that part of it is a reflection of the Atlantic Forest deforestation and global warming.

"We're in the climate ICU," the researcher said, comparing the climate problem to that of a patient admitted to a hospital. According to Nobre, it is difficult to predict whether the "patient" - in this case, Amazon - will react, although there is a solution to the problem.

"When you are in the process of admission to ICU at the hospital, the doctor will tell you what time you die? Will not. Depends on your body and on many factors, and what the doctor can do is what is at his fingertips: to inform. What I am doing is stating (about the environmental issue in Amazonia). And I do think I have a solution: zero deforestation for yesterday and replant through a war effort. But before that, a real war effort is to end the ignorance", he emphasised.

According to Nobre, the effort to stop deforestation is insufficient, since we must also confront the liability of accumulated deforestation, thus initiating a recovery process that has already been destroyed. “We need to plant trees everywhere, not only in the Amazon", said the researcher, remembering that we just cannot plant eucalyptus, as currently occurs, since this is not the kind that is best suited to bring rain.

Nobre says that the government has a huge task to perform and such work should be done in conjunction with the prosecutors, Justice, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and especially the scientists, repeating something that was made after 2004, when Brazil reached the peak of deforested area (27,700 km²). "It is possible to make arrangements and all sectors are benefiting", says.

Although deforestation is being reduced in recent years, Brazil is still the world's largest deforester, said Claudio Amarante (WWF Brazil). "From the data we have today, for everything already reduced, Brazil is still the largest deforester of the world, although it depends on how it is measured. Brazil has ten years of reduced deforestation, but the Andean-Amazonian countries come in contrary case: there is an increase in deforestation. After Brazil, come to Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, from an absolute point of view (of deforested area)."

According to Amarante, controlling deforestation in Brazil is now entering its most difficult phase: fighting against small patches of deforestation, barely visible by satellites. "So far, what could stop deforestation was that it was easier, the most blatantly illegal, the largest areas and highest detection. Now we have to fight against small patches of deforestation and those made by small farms or settlements, "he said.