Deforestation increases 18% from August to March in the Amazon

The deforested areas of the Amazon had an increase of 18% between August 2024 and March 2025, according to data from a survey conducted Amazon’s Human and Environment Institute (Imazon).

The so -called “deforestation calendar” considers the period from August from year to July of the following year, due to the rainfall regime in the biome. In the last measurement, from August 2024 to March 2025, the overthrow went to 2,296 km². Between August 2023 and March 2024, the area was 1,948 km².

The deforested area is larger than the municipality of Palmas, capital of Tocantins. Despite the increase, this devastation is almost 60% lower than that recorded between August 2020 and March 2021, when 5,552 km² were deforested, the largest destruction since 2008.


Forest degradation, caused by the burning and logging extraction, reached 206 km² in March this year, a 90% reduction compared to the same month last year, which had recorded the highest rate of the historical series for the period of 2,120 km².

Nevertheless, there was a 329% increase in forest degradation, from 7,925 km² from August 2023 to March 2024 to 34,013 km² from August 2024 to March 2025.


“Even if the indicators are below these peaks, the growth observed in 2025 is a warning sign. We are in a time window that can allow the reversal of this scenario, where the rains are more frequent in the region. Therefore, the forest disorders are not as intense when we compare with the drier months, as from June to October. Therefore, it is necessary to act urgently,” says Imazon researcher, Larissa Amorim.

Only in March 2025, the deforestation of the Amazon reached 167 km², an increase of 35% over the same month last year, when 124 km² were destroyed. Among the states, Mato Grosso led the destruction in March, with 65 km² lost (39%). Second was the Amazonas, with 39 km² (23%), and third of Pará, with 29 km² (17%).

Another negative highlight of March was deforestation recorded in the Rio Juma settlement, in Amazonas, which reached 14 km², the equivalent of 1,400 soccer fields. It is an area seven times larger than the knocking in PDS Reality, 2 km², the second most deforested settlement in March, also on Amazonian soil.

This content was originally published in deforestation increases 18% from August to March in the Amazon on the CNN Brazil website.

Source: CNN Brasil

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