SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE Disclose Data from Forest

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published in english on the day (26/05) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE disclose data from Forest Remnants Atlas.

Duda Falcão

SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE Disclose

Data from Forest Remnants Atlas

May, 26, 2011

The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) along with the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation published on Thursday, May 26th, data from Atlas of the Atlantic Forests Remnants. The data informed the situation in 16 out of 17 states for 2008-2010 period. Minas Gerais, Bahia, Santa Catarina, and Paraná were the most deforested.

From the total Atlantic Forest area (1.315,460 km2), 1.288,989 km2 have been evaluated, which corresponds to 98%. Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Sergipe, and São Paulo have been analyzed. Just Piauí have not been evaluated because its data could not be contained by the undefined identification criteria of natural forests biome in the state. In addition, a detailed mapping led by the Environment Ministry is expected.

The data, presented by Marcia Hirota, Manager and SOS Mata Atlântica director; Flávio Jorge Ponzoni, INPE researcher and technical coordinator of this survey; and Mario Mantovani, Public Policies Director of the Foundation, show that 31195 hectares (ha), or 311.95 km2 had been evaluated: 30944 ha correspond to deforestation, 234 ha to sandbank vegetation removal and 17 ha of mangrove vegetation removal.

According to Marcia Hirota, the survey proves that the native forest removal continues and the data warns to implement public policies that encourage Biome conservation and restoration. "We depend on natural resources and environmental services of the Atlantic Forest, because they are essential to 112 million people that live there” she emphasizes. "The Chamber of Deputies approval about proposed changes in Forest worsening the situation" adds Mario Mantovani, Public Policies Director of the Foundation.

Flavio Ponzoni, INPE researcher and Atlas technical coordinator, says that "the next versions must include sensitive items observation to new Forest Code approval with regard to possible negative impacts on the trend of deforestation rates decreasing". He reinforces that "we are always motivated to implement new methodologies that allow us to refine the information, making them the most real as possible”.

Ranking

The biggest damage occurred in Minas Gerais, Bahia, Santa Catarina, and Parana, that lost 12467 ha, 7725 ha, 3701 ha and 3248 ha native forestall coverage respectively. Have been deforested 1864 hectares in Rio Grande do Sul, 579 ha in Sao Paulo, Goiás 320 ha, 247 ha in Rio de Janeiro, 237 ha in Espírito Santo , and 117 ha in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Also was verified a native vegetation removal totaling 24 ha in Alagoas, 253 ha in Pernambuco, 224 ha in Sergipe, and 188 ha in Ceará since 2002. It was not register sandbank or mangrove vegetation removal, according to Atlas survey methodology, which maps a minimum area of 3 ha.

All the states had a deforestation annual rate decrease. In Minas Gerais, the average annual rate declined 43% since the last survey, covering 2005-2008 period, recorded that total deforestation was 32728 hectares. Minas Gerais had originally 46% of its territory (27235854 hectares) covered by Atlantic Forest biome, but now there are only 10.04% (2733926 hectares).

Despite being the second ranking state, Bahia had a drop of 52% on deforestation annual rate. Decreased from 24148 ha to 7725 ha in 2008-2010 period. The state, which already had 33% of its territory covered by Atlantic Forest, now has just 9% (1692734 ha of native forest).

In Santa Catarina the deforestation continues, but the annual rate dropped 79%. The Atlantic Forest used to covers the whole state (9,591,012 ha) but nowadays there are only 23% or 2210061 ha of the original biome.

In Parana, the deforestation annual rate had a drop of 51%, and lost more than 3248 ha. Paraná used to have 98% of its territory in the biome, or 19667485 ha. Currently, there are 2094392 ha covered by native Atlantic Forest, or 10.65% of the original territory.

Check out the data from 16 evaluated states:

* The mapping of other Northeastern states was realized according to the free cloud images availability. Deforestation may have occurred between 2002 (date of the first scene) and 2010. Above Sao Francisco river, Pernambuco was the state that had the biggest native forest loss. The only mangrove vegetation removal was observed in Ipojuca.

Municipalities Situation

It has been presented also, data from deforestation of the Atlantic Forest by municipalities. Minas Gerais again is the number one of the list: the three cities that most lost their vegetation are from Minas as Ponto dos Volantes and Jequitinhonha where both lost 3244 and 2786 hectares respectively. Pedra Azul, in Minas Gerais northern region, had lost 676 hectares. In fourth place Bahia do Andaraí had 634 ha deforested. In the fifth, another Minas Gerais town: Águas Vermelhas, that lost 525 ha.

Acording to Mario Mantovani, SOS Mata Atlântica Public Policy Director "The deforestation process in those cities was focused on the limits between Brazilian Cerrado and Caatinga, especially those in the dry forests, used for the agriculture expansion and charcoal for the steel industry”.

The "Atlas of the Atlantic Forest Municipalities” shows the main forest areas location and situation in the cities covered by Atlantic Forest. By IPMA (Atlantic Forest Preservation Catalogue) - created by SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE - it becomes possible to rank the municipalities that have more native vegetation. Information and maps are available on sites: www.sosma.org.br www.inpe.br or directly on the map server http://mapas.sosma.org.br

Metropolitan Areas

The Atlas also shows deforestation data classified by metropolitan areas. The area with largest deforestation was the metropolitan region of Curitiba, followed by São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre. Check the table below:

Map of Law 11,428 Application Area

Since its 15th edition, from 2005-2008, Atlantic Forests Remnants Atlas believes that the Atlantic Forest biome boundaries are based on the Area Map Application Law No. 11 428 of 2006. The use of new limits for Brazilian biomes implied changes on the whole area, the area of each state, the total number of municipalities and the Atlantic Forest and remnants percentage in every spot.

The Atlantic Forest is distributed along the Atlantic coast of the country, reaching Argentina and Paraguay areas (southeastern and southern regions). According to the Area Map of the Law Application No. 11 428, 2006 (IBGE, 2008), the Atlantic Forest originally covered 1.315.460 km ² on Brazilian territory. Its original boundaries included 17 states areas (PI, CE, RN, PE, PB, SE, AL, BA, ES, MG, GO, RJ, DM, SP, PR, SC, and RS).

In this huge area live about 61% of the Brazilian population, based on IBGE 2007 Population Census - Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - more than 112 million people in 3222 municipalities, which represents 58% of Brazilian population. So that, 2.594 municipalities have its whole territories in the biome range, and over 628 cities are partially included, accordingly to IBGE municipal grid data (2005).

The Atlantic Forest, a complex and rich ecosystems series that have a great importance, preserves a significant portion of the Brazilian biological diversity, nationally and worldwide recognized in the scientific circle. Unfortunately, it is one of the world’s most threatened biomes due to many kinds of territorial aggression it faces daily.

The problem that Atlantic Forest has been facing along the years is well known. Since when Brazil was discovered by Europeans, the impacts of different exploration cycles, the concentration of big cities and industrial centers, and high population density, meant that the natural vegetation had been drastically reduced. At this moment there is only 7.9% of remnant forest in areas above 100 hectares. This data disregards the Piaui Atlantic Forest Biome, which so far has not been mapped.

Historical Atlas

The remnants forests Atlas and Atlantic Forest Biome associated ecosystems, developed by SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation and INPE, a Science and Technology Ministry agency, represents huge advance to understand the Atlantic Forests situation.

The first survey, published in 1990 by SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE, with Brazilian Environment and Natural Resources Institute (IBAMA) participation, had the merit of being an unpublished work about the original area and spatial distribution of Atlantic Forests Remnants and became a reference to scientific research and environmental movement. It has been developed in scale 1:1,000,000.

In 1991, SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE began a 1:250,000-scale mapping, analyzing human action on the forest remnants and the mangroves and sandbanks vegetation from 1985-1990. Published in 1992/93, the study evaluated the Atlantic Forest situation in ten states - Bahia, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goias, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul - which had the highest concentration of preserved areas. The northeastern states could not be evaluated due to the difficulty of obtaining satellite images without clouds coverage.

A new release happened in 1998, but this time covering the 1990-1995 periods, with the boundaries digitalization of different vegetation Atlantic Forest types and of some state and federal conservation units, developed in partnership with the Socio-Environmental Institute.

From 1995 to 2000, TM/ Landsat 5 or ETM + Landsat 7 digital images have been used and analyzed directly by the computer screen, what allow the mapping scale expansion to 1:50,000 and reduce consequently the minimum area mapped to 10 hectares. In the previous study, it was evaluated the areas above 25 hectares. The results revealed again Atlantic Forest situation in 10 out of 17 states - all Atlantic Forest areas of Goias, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul and partial areas of Bahia state.

In 2004, SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE released the "Atlantic Forest Municipalities Atlas” in order to provide tools for understanding, monitoring and controlling the local operations. Based on this research, each citizen can have easy access to maps throughout the internet, getting involved, and acting in order to protect and conserve this ecosystem set. The tool to publish the maps on the Internet was performed by ArcPlan, by MapServer technology (University of Minnesota), available at: www.sosma.org.br and www.dsr.inpe.br - websites.

At the end of 2004, both organizations started updating the 2000 to 2005 data. This edition had also methodological improvements and the re-mapping criteria had been revised, which stands out the ArcGIS 9.0 software adoption, enabling a quick and simplified state territory view that makes part of the Atlantic Forest biome. Thus it facilitated and provided greater security on interpretation review and articulation work within the limits of the topographic maps.

The "Atlantic Forests Remnants Atlas” fourth edition presented updated data on 13 states covered by biome (PE, AL, SE, BA, GO, MS, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS). A report showed methodology, quantitative results of the Atlantic Forest remnants status in those States, and the deforestation on 10 States between 2000 and 2005. This phase maintained the 1:50,000 scale and began to identify areas over three hectares and the technical report as well as the statistics and maps, images, field shots, files and remnants forest data in vector format, by city, state, Conservation Unit, hydrographic basin and Biodiversity corridor as well.

In 2008, it was presented the updated figures from analysis of the Atlas 4th edition, including the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Alagoas, Pernambuco and Sergipe, which added to the Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceara mapping made by NGO Northeastern Ecological Society, totalize 16 out of 17 states where the biome occurs, or 98% of the Atlantic Forest.

In 2009, the Atlas 5th edition brought out the updated numbers analyzes until May, in which included 10 states covered by biome (BA, GO, MS, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS). This issue presented showed methodology, quantitative results of the Atlantic Forest remnants status in those States, and the deforestation in 10 States between 2000 and 2005.

In 2010, the Atlas 6th edition brings out the updated data until May 2010, about nine states covered by biome (GO, MS, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS). Summarily, the document presented the current methodology, the maps, and the global and state statistics. The mapping used satellite images from Landsat 5, which takes on board the Thematic Mapper sensor.

To monitor and analyze the Atlantic Forests situation since 1989, $ 6 million from the private sector have been invested.

Check out each monitoring result already carried out:

Deforestation:

Period 1985-1990: 466,937 ha

Period 1990-1995: 500,317 ha

Period 1995-2000: 445,952 ha

Period 2000-2005: 174,828 ha

Period 2005-2008: 102,938 ha

Period 2008-2010: 31,195 ha

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)