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Amazon lost 7,989 km² of forest in 12 months
The Amazon lost 7,989 square kilometres of rainforest between August 2015 and July 2016, according to a survey published by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) based on late 2016 government data. This is the largest annual deforestation figure since 2008, equivalent to 128 football fields of forest being slashed every hour according to IPAM.
ittle has changed in the land distribution of the devastation: the largest portion of the total area deforested over the 12-month period consisted of private properties (35.4%), followed by land reform settlements (28.6%), unassigned public land (24%) and conservancy units (12%).
According to the 2016 Amazon Deforestation Report (original Portuguese title: Panorama do Desmatamento da Amazônia 2016), the states with the largest increase in deforestation rates were Amazonas, Acre and Pará, with 54%, 47% and 41% respectively.
In absolute terms, the largest deforestation was seen in Pará (3,025 km²), followed by Mato Grosso (1,508 km²) and Rondônia (1,394 km²). The three states combined accounted for 75% of the total deforested area in 2016.
The study has exposed the need to engage society in deforestation controls “with a new command and control framework for projects, a positive agenda of incentives to production efficiencies in existing deforested areas, and better support for protecting one's forest assets, as well as a larger role of business and banks in anti-deforestation controls.”
Since 2004, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has been reduced by more than 70%, after the second-highest peak ever since it has been monitored (27,772 km²). Between 2009 and 2015, it stabilised at an average 6,080 km² per year, with the year 2012 seeing the lowest deforestation rate in the last 20 years (4,571 km²).
After 2012, deforestation began to increase successively with only minor dips. (Agência Brasil)