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In 2019 Mato Grosso registered the highest rate of deforestation in the last 11 years and remains one of the states that deforests the Brazilian Amazon the most. From August 2018 to July 2019, the National Institute of Spatial Research (Inpe) mapped 9,762 km² of deforested areas across the biome. This represents an increase of 30% compared to the same period in the previous year. Mato Grosso was responsible for 17% of this destruction, which represents 1,685 km², an area larger than the municipality of São Paulo.

In this report we present the characteristics of deforestation in 2019 in Mato Grosso, detected through Inpe’s Legal Amazon Deforestation Satellite Monitoring Project (Prodes). The study covers the concentration of these areas in the municipalities, their occurrence by land category, polygon sizes, illegality analysis, in addition to an assessment of enforcement by the responsible environmental agencies.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DEFORESTATIONIN THE MATO GROSSO AMAZON IN 2019

Figure 1 - Deforestation rate (km²) in the Amazon biome inMato Grosso, from August 2008 to July 2019 (Prodes/Inpe).

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Polygon sizes and land categoriesMore than 4,500 fallen forest area polygons were detected. The polygons with more than 50 hectares account for 66% of the total area deforested (Figure 2). There were 148 areas larger than 200 hectares, but these areas represented 34% of the deforestation detected. This proportion is slightly lower than in the previous year, which was 39%. But still, this is

very high considering that the deforestation of large areas demands a large financial investment to be carried out, but can also be easily detected through satellite imagery and consequently responded to.

The analysis by land category (Figure 3) showed that the largest part of the deforestation (959 km²) occurred in rural properties registered on the Rural Environmental Register (CAR), which represented 56% of the total area, followed by non-registered areas (535 km²). Agricultural reform settlement projects (PA) accounted for

11% of the total area deforested, with the Nova Cotriguaçu and Japuranomam PAs having the largest new open areas in 2019, corresponding to 14% of all the forest cleared in this category. Protected areas, for their part, accounted for only 1.2% of deforested areas, with 1.1% being indigenous areas and 0.1% being conservation units.

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Deforested areas (km²)

Figure 2 - Area deforested between August 2018and July 2019 by polygon size.

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Figure 3 - Deforested areas (km²) by land category.

Figure 4 -Distribution ofthe deforestation mappedbetween August 2018and July 2019 by land type.

Registered rural property

Rural settlement

Indigenous land

Conservation unit

Non-registered area

56%

1%

31%

12%

0%

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Of the deforestation detected in registered rural properties, 55% occurred in large properties, with more than 1,500 hectares, followed by medium properties, which possessed between 400 and 1,500 hectares (28%). In relation to the size of the cleared areas identified on private properties, 82% of the total are polygons larger than 50 hectares (Table 1).

Half of the deforestation in registered properties occurred, therefore, on large rural properties and in areas larger than 50 hectares; that is, in areas easily detectable by monitoring systems through satellite images.

Separating out authorized deforestation, we observe that 74% of all illegal deforestation that occurred in the state was concentrated in only 1,065 rural properties, representing little more than 1% of registered properties. This means that there are few rural properties that do not follow the forest legislation and put at risk the legality and sustainability of the state’s agricultural production.

Deforestation in the municipalitiesIn 2019, the municipality with the most new deforested area in Mato Grosso was Colniza (Figure 5), with 196 km² of new open areas, followed by Aripuanã, with 156 km². These, together with 6 other municipalities, accounted for 52% of all the deforestation mapped, which was concentrated mainly in the North and Northwest regions (Figure 6).

Table 1 - Deforested areas (km²) between August 2018and July 2019 in private rural properties.

Properties -up to 400hectares

Properties - 400 to 1500

hectares

Properties -larger than 1500

hectares

Up to 20 hectares 50 19 15 8420 to 50 hectares 46 25 18 8950 to 100 hectares 30 32 18 81100 t 200 hectares 23 52 43 118Larger than 200 hectares 18 131 417 566Totals 167 260 511 938

Deforestedpolygon size

Deforested areas (km²)

Totals

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Figure 5 - Ten municipalities with the most deforested area between August 2018 and July 2019, by land category.

Non-registered area

Rural settlement

Registered rural property

Indigenous land

Conservation unit

Figure 6 - Concentration ofthe deforestation mappedbetween August 2018and July 2019 in the MatoGrosso Amazon.

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COLNIZA

ARIPUANÃ

NOVABANDEIRANTES

MARCELÂNDIA

APIACÁS

JUARA

CLÁUDIA

UNIÃO DO SUL

PARANAÍTA

PEIXOTO DEAZEVEDO 7 30 16

12 2 42

7 10 59

29 4 52

59 24 40

80 8 168

80 8 1 168

22 163

13 83

12 1 50

Deforested area (km²)

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The Illegality of deforestationin the AmazonThe increase of 13% in relation to the area deforested in the previous year signals that the rhythm of forest destruction in the states remains alarming. Added to this is the high level of illegality. Of the total area mapped in 2019, 85% was classified as illegal, since there were no authorizations issued for deforesting or suppressing vegetation by the environmental agency¹.

¹ The deforestation authorization data were obtained from SEMA-MT’s Transparency Portal (http://transparencia.sema.mt.gov.br/) and updated by the Environmental

Geoinformation and Monitoring Coordination (CGMA) through 08/16/2019.

Of the 70 state municipalities with deforested areas in the analyzed period, 34 presented 100% illegal deforestation; that is, no valid authorizations were issued by the environmental agency (Figure 7). The other 36 municipalities presented some area with legal deforestation, but even so the average legality among them was only 20%. Nova Mutum was the municipality with the largest legally deforested area (27 km²), followed by Cláudia (22 km²) and União do Sul (21 km²).

Figure 7 - Municipalities with legally deforested areas (over 5 hectares)and illegally deforested areas, between August 2018 and July 2019.

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SANTA CRUZ DO XINGUPARANAÍTA

NOVA MARINGÁNOVA BANDEIRANTES

PARANATINGAPEIXOTO DE AZEVEDO

NOVA CANAÃ DO NORTENOVA UBIRATÃ

SANTA CARMEMTABAPORÃ

JUARABRASNORTE

FELIZ NATALUNIÃO DO SUL

CLÁUDIANOVA MUTUM

Legal

Illegal

Deforested areas (km²)

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EnforcementThe more than 4,500 deforested area polygons detected this year in the Mato Grosso Amazon demonstrate the huge challenge that is combating this illegal practice. Although addressing this problem demands different actions and public policies, enforcement is a central component and should be emphasized. In Mato Grosso, this activity is a shared jurisdiction between the federal agency (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources – IBAMA) and the state agency (State Environmental Secretary – SEMA).

From 2016 to 2018, the state agency issued enforcement actions for 2,085 km² of illegal deforestation (Figure 8). In August of this year, the state government announced² an intensification in enforcement action that includes the use of new monitoring systems and the carrying out of operations to combat deforestation and burnings³. From January to October of 2019, Sema issued enforcement actions for 720 km² of illegal deforestation, although this number is expected to reach 1,434 km², when considering enforcement operations that were carried out and whose cases are still being finalized. This means a 66% increase in area over the previous year.

² http://www.mt.gov.br/-/12410640-nova-ferramenta-da-sema-permite-a-deteccao-imediata-do-desmatamento-ilegal³ http://www.mt.gov.br/-/13302092-mato-grosso-mantem-taxa-de-desmatamento-controlada

Figure 8 - Area of Sema’s illegal deforestation operations(km²) from January 206 to October 2019.

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Enforcement Actions Issuedfrom Operation Amazon

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However, the number of violation cases for damage to flora emitted through Ibama maintained the same downward trend from the last 4 years. Between January and November of 2019, the agency issued 411 enforcement actions for crimes against flora⁴. This means a reduction of 37% over the same period of the previous year, in which 651 actions were issued (Figure 9).

Cuiabá-MT, Dezembro de 2019

AuthorsAna Paula ValdionesVinicius SilgueiroBruno CardosoPaula BernasconiAlice Thuault

RevisionRodrigo Vargas

⁴ Data on Ibama's issued enforcement actions available at https://servicos.ibama.gov.br/ctf/publico/areasembargadas/ConsultaPublicaAreasEmbargadas.php.

Access in 22/11/2019.

Figure 9 - Ibama Illegal deforestation cases in MatoGrosso, from January 2015 to November 2019.

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