The area of ​​degraded forest in the Amazon was the largest in at least 15 years in the first four months of 2024, according to satellite image monitoring by the research institute Imazon, released this Tuesday (21). Of the total 2,846 km² degraded between January and April, 99% were detected in Roraima due to fires. According to monitoring, in April alone, 693 km² of degradation were identified in Roraima, which is equivalent to the size of the city of Salvador. In March, the damage amounted to 2,120 km² of forest degradation, an area larger than the city of São Paulo. In other words, in just two months the state had almost 3 thousand km² of forest degraded, which represents almost 5 thousand football fields per day in environmental damage. The devastation is the greatest since 2009, when Imazon began mapping degradation in addition to deforestation. Forest degradation is different from deforestation. This is because forest degradation is caused by fire or selective logging, whereas deforestation is when the total removal of vegetation occurs, according to Imazon.

Source: Amazon Agency