Deforestation in the Amazon fell 61% in January.

The aggregated deforestation area in the Legal Amazon, in January, was 167 square kilometers, a reduction of 61% compared to the same month last year, when it reached 430 square kilometers. The preliminary data were released today (10) by the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe), based on the alerts made by the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter).

The Legal Amazon, with an area of 5 million square kilometers, corresponding to 59% of the Brazilian territory, is made up of the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and part of Maranhão.

The Deter is a quick survey of alerts of evidence of changes in forest cover in the Amazon, made by the Inpe.

According to the institute, “the system provides support for the supervision and control of deforestation and forest degradation carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and other agencies related to this theme”.

The Deter captures only part of the changes that occur, due to the lower resolution of the images/sensors used and also the cloud coverage restrictions. Therefore, the data may be revised.

The reference base for measuring deforestation in the country is carried out by the Prodes (Project and Monitoring of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite), whose database is considered more reliable, with a precision level close to 95%.

Currently, three systems monitor the Legal Amazon, each with a different function. In addition to Prodes and Deter, Inpe also uses the Selective Exploitation Detection System (Detex).

Source Agência Brasil