Brazil reduces fragmented native vegetation area by 43% over 38 years
The area of native vegetation fragmented by deforestation for land-use change in Brazil has decreased by 43 percent over 38 years, as per data from the Degradation module of MapBiomas, released this Thursday (Oct. 29). Brazil went from 287 hectares of fragmented forest in 1986 to 163 hectares in 2024. These are patches of original forest surrounded by areas cleared for agriculture, pasture, or…
Brazil has reduced the area of native vegetation fragmented by deforestation by 43% over the past 38 years, according to data released by MapBiomas on October 29. The number of patches of native vegetation has increased from 2.35 million in 1986 to 3.41 million in 2024, but these patches have become smaller in size.
The Atlantic forest is the most affected biome, with 1.38 million fragmented areas, while the cerrado follows with 957,000 small patches of native vegetation. The Amazon's fragments have decreased in size by 76% since 1986, from 2,700 hectares to 662 hectares. The number of isolated fragments has surged by 260%, from 144,000 in 1986 to 519,000 in 2024.
Edge areas, strips of land adjacent to deforested regions, contain 37 million to 102 million hectares of native vegetation, representing 7 to 18% of the country's native vegetation. The cerrado biome has the largest area of native vegetation exposed to edge zone vulnerabilities, spanning 11 million to 32 million hectares. The Atlantic forest, however, is the most exposed biome, with 29 to 66% of its total remaining native vegetation located in edge zones.
Written by urgent.news from Agencia Brasil's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
