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September 5, 2022 - Fires and Deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia
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Smoke and fires continue to mark increasing deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest through early September 2022. According to Global Forest Watch, there were 6,423,870 integrated deforestation alerts reported in Brazil between August 24, 2022, and August 31, 2022. This covered a total of 77.7 hectares. 8.2 percent of these alerts were considered “high confidence” detected by a single system and 2.1 percent were detected by multiple systems. That translates to 526,727 “high confidence” alerts and 134,901 confirmed by multiple systems. These alerts are not just fire, but also watch for canopy disturbance and other parameters that signal potential deforestation is happening in near-real time.
On September 1, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of a hazy pall stretching across both Bolivia (west) and Brazil (east). Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark actively burning fire. Despite the cover of smoke, which is thick in some areas, hundreds of hot spots are visible in just this one section of the Amazon.
Most of the territory in this image belongs to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, which is located on the southeastern edge of the Amazon. One driving factor in deforestation in this region is agriculture, particularly soy farming. According to an article by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) published online in June 2022, “The Amazon Soy Moratorium has often been credited with significantly reducing soy-related deforestation in the Amazon over the past 15 years. The Moratorium is a voluntary zero-deforestation agreement in which traders agree not to purchase soy grown on land cleared after 2008.” However, soy prices are increasing, resulting in increasing pressure to grow the product—and increasing pressure to tear down the Amazon for farming and profits. In their report, MAAP reported that there was an additional direct deforestation due to soy of at least 42,000 hectares in the Brazilian Amazon since 2020, with all of this in the state of Mato Grosso. Recent major fire activity in recently deforested areas signaled burning in preparation for the upcoming planting season.
Despite recent commitments from Brazil to strongly rein in deforestation and destruction of the Amazon, fires in Brazil’s rainforests are reportedly increasing this year. In addition, fires and deforestation are reported to be encroaching on protected forests as well as indigenous land. An article published by The Washington Post on August 30, 2022, describes the frustration of inspectors and impotence of attempting to enforce any environmental regulation designed to protect Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. The compelling investigative story states, “The violent and lawless erasure of the Amazon is perhaps the world’s greatest environmental crime story. Scientists warn that the forest, seen as vital to averting catastrophic global warming, is at a tipping point. But in Brazil, home to about 60 percent of the Amazon, nearly one-fifth has already been destroyed. And virtually no one, law enforcement officials say, has been held accountable.”
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/1/2022
Resolutions:
1km (480.1 KB), 500m (1.7 MB),
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Smoke and fires continue to mark increasing deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest through early September 2022. According to Global Forest Watch, there were 6,423,870 integrated deforestation alerts reported in Brazil between August 24, 2022, and August 31, 2022. This covered a total of 77.7 hectares. 8.2 percent of these alerts were considered “high confidence” detected by a single system and 2.1 percent were detected by multiple systems. That translates to 526,727 “high confidence” alerts and 134,901 confirmed by multiple systems. These alerts are not just fire, but also watch for canopy disturbance and other parameters that signal potential deforestation is happening in near-real time.
On September 1, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of a hazy pall stretching across both Bolivia (west) and Brazil (east). Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark actively burning fire. Despite the cover of smoke, which is thick in some areas, hundreds of hot spots are visible in just this one section of the Amazon.
Most of the territory in this image belongs to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, which is located on the southeastern edge of the Amazon. One driving factor in deforestation in this region is agriculture, particularly soy farming. According to an article by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) published online in June 2022, “The Amazon Soy Moratorium has often been credited with significantly reducing soy-related deforestation in the Amazon over the past 15 years. The Moratorium is a voluntary zero-deforestation agreement in which traders agree not to purchase soy grown on land cleared after 2008.” However, soy prices are increasing, resulting in increasing pressure to grow the product—and increasing pressure to tear down the Amazon for farming and profits. In their report, MAAP reported that there was an additional direct deforestation due to soy of at least 42,000 hectares in the Brazilian Amazon since 2020, with all of this in the state of Mato Grosso. Recent major fire activity in recently deforested areas signaled burning in preparation for the upcoming planting season.
Despite recent commitments from Brazil to strongly rein in deforestation and destruction of the Amazon, fires in Brazil’s rainforests are reportedly increasing this year. In addition, fires and deforestation are reported to be encroaching on protected forests as well as indigenous land. An article published by The Washington Post on August 30, 2022, describes the frustration of inspectors and impotence of attempting to enforce any environmental regulation designed to protect Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. The compelling investigative story states, “The violent and lawless erasure of the Amazon is perhaps the world’s greatest environmental crime story. Scientists warn that the forest, seen as vital to averting catastrophic global warming, is at a tipping point. But in Brazil, home to about 60 percent of the Amazon, nearly one-fifth has already been destroyed. And virtually no one, law enforcement officials say, has been held accountable.”
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/1/2022
Resolutions:
1km (480.1 KB), 500m (1.7 MB),
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
