Long-term forest degradation surpasses deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Although deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon are well known, the extent of the area affected by forest degradation is a notable data gap, with implications for conservation biology, carbon cycle science, and international policy. We generated a long-term spatially quantified assessment of forest degradation for the entire Brazilian Amazon from 1992 to 2014. We measured and mapped the full range of activities that degrade forests and evaluated the relationship with deforestation. From 1992 to 2014, the total area of degraded forest was 337,427 square kilometers (km2), compared with 308,311 km2 that were deforested. Forest degradation is a separate and increasing form of forest disturbance, and the area affected is now greater than that due to deforestation.

Control and prevention of infectious diseases from a One Health perspective

“…In Brazil, government actions focused on the environment have been greatly weakened (Carvalho et al, 2019;Ferrante and Fearnside, 2019;Hope, 2019). Currently, deforestation and other environmental disturbances in the Amazon region are growing (Artaxo, 2019;Escobar, 2019;INPE, 2020;Matricardi et al, 2020), and attempts to facilitate the hunting of wild animals are on the rise (WWF, 2019). Deforestation and other environmental disturbances are associated with the emergence and spread of different infections (Ellwanger et al, 2020a).…”

Scale matters in understanding the complexity of Amazon fires: A response to the Editor

“…Regarding B2020’s fifth point that deforestation and degradation are different processes that have legal implications, we reiterate that we used the high‐resolution forest loss dataset in which forest loss is defined as a stand‐replacement disturbance or the complete removal of tree cover canopy, and that fire‐caused degradation is accounted for in the canopy loss estimate (Curtis et al, 2018). We also note that understory burning results in a small fraction of forest degradation (Matricardi et al, 2020). We appreciate that B2020’s terminology distinction may be important for Brazilian “legal implications.” However, our scientific analysis of coupling between atmospheric and terrestrial processes that affect fire does not “obfuscate the search for solutions”; rather, our demonstration that large‐scale coupling affects atmospheric moisture and thereby fire risks can help society as it moves toward holistic solutions to these difficult problems.…”

Fire Occurrences and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

“…The research carried out by Matricardi et al [66], during the period 1992 to 2014, revealed that forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon had surpassed deforestation. They attributed 40% of the whole Amazon forest was degraded by intensive logging and understory fires, and remaining 60% through edges and isolated forest fragmentation.…”