August 2024 Amazon deforestation lowest in six years

In August 2024, the Amazon experienced the lowest level of deforestation alerts in six years. According to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), generated by the DETER-B monitoring system, deforestation alerts dropped by 10.6% compared to August 2023, when Brazil had already reinstated environmental policies, and by 69.7%, compared to August 2022. Preserving the Amazon is a key commitment of the Federal Government, along with combating illegal wildfires and holding perpetrators accountable.

In August 2023, the monitoring system registered 563.09 km² of deforestation alerts. In the same period of 2024, the area under alert decreased to 503.5 km², marking a reduction of nearly 60 km². This is the lowest rate recorded for August since 2018 and represents the second consecutive year of significant decline. This reduction is even more pronounced compared to 2022, when deforestation alerts covered 1,661.02 km² of land in the region. 

On the left, a year-by-year comparison of deforestation in the Amazon for the month of August. On the right, data from January to August for the recent years. Source: DETER / INPE.

In the comparison between January and August, there was a 24% reduction in deforestation in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, with the deforested area decreasing from 3,712 km² last year to 2,813 km² this year.

Deter is an indicator of deforestation trends, measured from August to July by another INPE system, Prodes. Prodes uses more precise satellite images than those used by Deter, which issues daily alerts to support field inspections carried out by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources [Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis/IBAMA] and the  Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation [Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade/ICMBio).

CERRADO - In the Cerrado savanna, deforestation dropped 12% in August compared to the same month in 2023. This year, 404 km² have been affected, compared to 458 km² last year. From January to August, the reduction in 2024 is 16% compared to 2023: 4,573 km² this year against 5,459 km² last year. 

CONTEXT — In early August, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change [Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima/MMA] reported a 45.7% drop in the area under deforestation alerts from August 2023 to July 2024, the largest reduction recorded by DETER-B in the period. The total was 4,315 km², compared to 7,952 km² from August 2022 to July 2023.

During this period, there was a 53% reduction in deforestation in the 70 Amazon municipalities considered priorities for combating deforestation. Of these, 48 municipalities joined the Federal Government’s "Union with Municipalities" [União com Municípios] program, which provides BRL 785 million in funding for environmental actions if deforestation is reduced.

In addition to combating deforestation, the program promotes sustainable development in these 70 municipalities, which accounted for 78% of the biome's deforestation in 2022. The funds are allocated to municipalities based on a "payment for performance" model: the larger the annual reduction in deforestation and degradation, the greater the investment. The benchmark for this is the Prodes monitoring system, which calculates the annual deforestation rate from August of one year to July of the next.

DETER — The Real-Time Deforestation Detection System [Sistema de Detecção de Desmatamento em Tempo Real/DETER] is a rapid survey of signs of change in forest cover. It was developed to support monitoring of deforestation and forest degradation.