Characteristics of Deforestation in the Mato Grosso Cerrado in 2019

CHARACTERISTICS OF DEFORESTATION IN THE MATO GROSSO CERRADO IN 2019 From August 2018 to July 2019, deforestation Despite the reduction of 6% in area deforested mapped by the National Institute of Spatial compared to the same period of the previous Research (Inpe)¹ across the area covered by the year (Figure 1), the trend of opening new areas Cerrado biome was 6,483.4 km², equivalent to in the state remains alarming. This scenario four times the area of the city of Sao Paulo (SP). keeps Mato Grosso far away from achieving Mato Grosso ranked third among states that the international commitment taken on most deforested the biome, being responsible during the Paris Climate Conference, in 2015. for 14% of all the deforestation detected, which At the time, the government committed itself corresponds to 930.6 km². to reducing deforestation in this biome and achieving 150 km²/year by 2030. 2000 1757 1800 1696 1600 ) ² m 1400 k ( 1165 1200 1104 1000 1033 1033 1010 988 1000 931 800 600 Deforestation Deforestation 400 200 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Figure 1. Rate of deforestation (km²) in the Mato Grosso Cerrado from August 2009 to July 2019 (Prodes Cerrado/Inpe). Here we present the detailed characteristics the municipalities, occurrences per land of deforestation in the Mato Grosso Cerrado, category, polygon sizes and analysis of the including the concentration of these areas in illegality. ¹National Institute of Spatial Research (Inpe). General Earth Observation Coordination. PRODES - Annual increase in deforested area in the Brazilian Cerrado. Available at: http://www.obt.inpe.br/cerrado. Georeferenced database (shape). 01 Polygon sizes and land categories deforested (Figure 2). The largest deforestation In 2019, more than 5,500 deforestation (single polygon) detected in the period totaled polygons were detected. Those of more than 50 more than 3,300 hectares, and occurred in the hectares make up 58% of the total area municipality of Cocalinho. Greater than 200 hectares 324 100 to 200 hectares 101 50 to 100 hectares 113 20 to 50 hectares 144 Up to 20 hectares 249 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 Desmatamento (km²) Figure 2. Area deforested between August 2018 and July 2019 by polygon size. The analysis by land category demonstrated areas (243 km²). Rural settlement accounted that most of the deforestation in the Cerrado for 9% of total deforestation (Figure 3). (590 km²) occurred in rural properties Protected areas accounted for only 1% of registered in the Rural Environmental deforested areas (Figure 4). Registry (CAR), followed by non-registered 1% 0% Non-registered area 26% Settlement SICAR rural property Indigenous land 63% 9% Conservation unit Figure 3. Deforestation by land category. 02 Figure 4. Distribution of deforestation in the Cerrado by land category. Deforestation in the municipalities properties registered in the CAR. This, The municipality with the largest area of together with 9 other municipalities, deforested Cerrado in the state in 2019 was accounted for almost half of all the mapped Cocalinho (Figure 5), with 85 km² of new open deforestation in the state (46%), which was areas. The majority of the mapped cases in concentrated mostly in the south-central and this municipality (84%) occurred in rural northeast regions of the state (Figure 6). 03 COCALINHO 10 69 4 ROSÁRIO OESTE 13 6 47 RIBEIRÃO CASCALHEIRA 22 17 7 1 PARANATINGA 15 31 Non-registered area SÃO FÉLIX DO ARAGUAIA 15 9 21 Settlement CAMPOS DE JÚLIO 4 31 SICAR rural property NOVA NAZARÉ 3 1 29 Indigenous land NOVA MUTUM 111 29 Conservation unit POCONÉ 5 1 16 JUÍNA 14 6 1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Deforestation (km²) Figure 5. Municipalities with the highest concentration of deforested areas between August 2018 and July 2019, by land category. Figure 6. Concentration of deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019. 04 The illegality of deforestation in the Of the 88 state municipalities with deforested Cerrado areas in the Cerrado in the period analyzed, Despite the 6% reduction in area deforested only 19 of them presented some area with compared to the previous year, the trend of legal deforestation; that is to say, they destruction of the Cerrado in the state remains possessed valid authorizations issued by the alarming, especially due to its high degree of environmental agency (Figure 7). Even so, the illegality. Of the total deforestation occured in legality among them was only 27% of the total 2019, only 12% was undertaken in areas with open area. Nova Mutum was the municipality valid authorizations or permits, issued by the with largest legally deforested area (27.2 km²). state environmental agency (SEMA). In the remaining municipalities in the Cerrado region, the deforestation in 2019 was 100% illegal. NOVA MUTUM 27 3 ROSÁRIO OESTE 23 43 CAMPOS DE JÚLIO 10 25 SAPEZAL 9 9 BRASNORTE 9 5 PARANATINGA 8 39 POCONÉ 7 15 CAMPO NOVO DOS PARECIS 3 1 NOVA UBIRATÃ 3 4 SÃO FÉLIX DO ARAGUAIA 2 42 TESOURO 2 16 Legal BARRA DO GARÇAS 2 5 Illegal POXORÉO 2 9 PLANALTO DA SERRA 2 3 COMODORO 1 8 SANTA RITA DO TRIVELATO 1 8 SANTO ANTÔNIO DO LEVERGER 7 ACORIZAL 4 RIBEIRÃO CASCALHEIRA 48 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Deforestation (km²) Figure 7. Municipalities with legal deforestation, and the area deforested legally and illegally, between August 2018 and July 2019. ²Data on deforestation authorizations were obtained from the SEMA-MT Transparency Portal (http://transparencia.sema.mt.gov.br/), with the database updated on 11/09/2018. 05 Of the illegal deforestation detected in 1,500 hectares (27%). Regarding the size of the registered rural properties, 64% was deforestation identiﬁed on private properties, concentrated in large properties, of more than 72% of the deforestation is composed by 1,500 hectares, followed by medium-sized polygons larger than 50 hectares each (Table 1). properties, with an area between 400 and Illegal Deforestation(km²) Illegal deforestation Properties Properties Properties polygon size up to 400 from 400 to larger than Total hectares 1500 hectares 1500 hectares Up to 20 hectares 29 28 23 79 20 to 50 hectares 14 31 26 71 50 to 100 hectares 4 22 36 62 100 to 200 hectares - 31 51 82 Greater than 200 hectares - 30 203 233 Total 47 142 339 527 Table 1. Area illegally deforested (km2) between August 2018 and July 2019 in private rural properties, by property size and polygon size. In the case of private properties, the illegal Cuiabá-MT, February 2020 deforestation is alarmingly concentrated in a small number of properties. More than half Authors (61%) of all the Cerrado area destroyed was Ana Paula Valdiones concentrated in only 883 properties, which Vinicius Silgueiro corresponds to roughly 3% of all properties in Paula Bernasconi the Mato Grosso Cerrado. Revision Rodrigo Vargas 06.

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