Deforestation in the Amazon area

Deforestation in the Amazon area reaches 175 km ² between March and April

Deforestation in the Amazon area. 50036.jpeg

by Carolina Gonçalves / Agency Brazil

Brasilia - Deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon reached an area of ​​nearly 175 square kilometers (km ²) in the months of March and April this year. The survey of alerts was released on Monday (6th) by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), responsible for the Deforestation Detection System in real time, known as Deter. In the same period of 2012, the system detected deforestation of 292 km ² - almost double the area identified this year.
 
Mato Grosso continues to lead the ranking of logging in the region, with 83.57 km ² of devastation in the two months analyzed - accounting for 47% of the total.
 
Information by the agency, warning areas in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins were identified even with cloud cover in almost 50% of the territory during the period investigated. Between November and April, during which rainfall is more constant in the Amazon, the images are relatively compromised. This is the justification used by INPE not to compare results between different months.
 
The technical institute claims that limiting resolution on meteorological and image capture - 250 meters, allows for the capture only of areas larger than 25 hectares - offset by the frequency of information passed to the supervisory bodies, such as the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).
 
"The low resolution sensors used by Deter is offset by the daily observation capacity, which makes the system an ideal tool to quickly inform the supervisory bodies regarding deforestation," he said in a statement advising the INPE.
 
The images taken by satellites used by the institute allow viewing of clear cut areas, where there is the complete removal of native forest in an area, and evidence of degradation by logging or forest fires, which typify the process of deforestation in the region .
 
The president of IBAMA, Volney Zanardi Junior, will detail today (6th) data released by INPE. The main concern of the authorities responsible for combating environmental crime in the region is to explain to the population that not every alert is proof that there is deforestation.
 
In the last published balance sheets, the government has been highlighting an effort to integrate national and state information. The felling of trees in certain areas may have the license of the local environmental agencies, which would set up a crime.


Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru