Atlantic Forest registers 66% increase in deforestation in one year

The Atlantic Forest [Mata Atlântica], one of the most biodiverse biomes in the world, had 21,642 hectares of forest deforested between 2019 and 2020, according to data from the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation in partnership with the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), an agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Of the total of 17 states that have the biome, fifteen had an increase on deforestation. “It has been a long time since we observed such a high relative increase. We had a certain stability,” said Luis Fernando Guedes Pinto, knowledge director at SOS Mata Atlântica. “We should be talking about restoration, but in 2022 we are talking about deforestation.”