TerraClass Results Presented in Pará

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published on the day (11/09) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that TerraClass results presented in Pará.

Duda Falcão

TerraClass Results Presented in Pará

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

In the Amazon Regional Center of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE) in Belém (PA), will be presented TerraClass results, a project that found out the most part of Amazon deforested areas are occupied by livestock.

In partnership with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), INPE has mapped 18% of the Amazon biome already cleared, creating a classification of different uses and situations in every state of this region. Analyses were based in data from the detailed survey of deforestation recorded by 2008, obtained by Prodes (Amazon Deforestation Project), INPE.

Teams from Amazon Regional Center (CRA) of INPE and from Embrapa Amazônia Oriental – both based in Belém (PA) - also from Embrapa Informática Agropecuária, in Campinas (SP), worked on Terra Class Project.

Pastures

Among the results, TerraClass report points out that from the areas deforested in Amazonia by 2008 - corresponding to 719,000 km² – the largest area is associated with pasture. It is a total of 447,000 km², shared in 335,000 km² of Clean Pasture (areas with production process and grass species predominance), 63,000 km² of Woody Pasture (pasture areas with production process and predominance of grass and hedge species associated with shrub-grass), 48,000 km² of regeneration with pasture (areas with some native vegetation regeneration, characterized by wide diversity of vegetal species) and 594 Km² of pasture with exposed soil (areas that have at least 50% of exposed soil).

The areas with secondary vegetation, called capoeiras (in Portuguese), correspond to 151,000 Km², which are in an advanced process of shrub and/or trees regeneration, or were used for forestry practice (tree planting) or permanent agriculture, using native or exotic species.

In the northern of the Amazonas River, capoeira areas are prevalent in deforested landscape, due to shifting cultivation in the region, where the areas naturally regenerate after agricultural cycles.

Terra Class also shows 35,000 km² of annual agricultural practice in deforested areas of eastern Amazonia. In these areas, annual cycle crops are usual, using high technology, such as certified seeds, inputs, mechanization, among others. The activity is prominent in Mato Grosso state, where 15% of deforested areas were replaced by annual agriculture, whereas comparing whole Amazonia this percentage is only 5%. Amazonas state has the largest area of Amazon rainforest.

Pará

In deforested areas of Pará state, there is a predominance of areas covered by pastures (62%), as in Amazonia. From the areas mapped as mining in Amazonia, almost half of them are in Pará.

Pará has about 888,000 km² of rainforest, corresponding to 70% of the total area, but the Amazonas state is that has the largest area of Amazon rainforest.

All numbers and maps listed by Terraclass Project will be distributed in detailed digital maps, allowing the evaluation of the land use in different spatial divisions, which is reliable information for public policies.

Report

Data from Terra Class mapping, as well as the executive summary of the study, are available at INPE’s website. The webpage can be found in “Amazonia” link, in the list of “Products and Services”.

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