Amazon lost 18 trees per second last year
Every hour, Brazil lost 189 hectares of native vegetation throughout 2021 4,536 hectares per day. The accelerated march added up to 16,557 square kilometers of deforestation in the last year, equivalent to almost three times the area of the Federal District. The value is 20% higher than in 2020. In the Amazon, the rate of deforestation was 1.9 hectares per minute, which is equivalent to about 18 trees per second. Across the country, there were 191 new deforestation events per day. For each deforestation action, the average speed was 0.18 hectare per day in 2021, against 0.16 hectare/day in 2020. The data make up the Annual Deforestation Report (RAD), launched by the MapBiomas project, which maps changes in the Brazilian territory based on the collaboration of universities, NGOs, and technology companies.