Brazil loses natural vegetation equivalent to the size of Bolivia in 40 years

Brazil lost 111.7 million hectares between 1985 and 2024, which corresponds to approximately 2.9 million hectares of natural areas per year . This area is equivalent to 13% of the national territory, an area larger than Bolivia.

The data was revealed by MapBiomas this Wednesday (13).

The loss of natural areas occurs during the transformation of these lands for pasture and agricultural use . The area occupied by pasture grew by 62.7 million hectares, and agriculture by 44 million hectares.

The number of municipalities where agriculture and livestock farming occupy the majority of their territory increased from 47% in 1985, with 420 municipalities, to 59%, 1037 municipalities in 2024.

The states with the largest agricultural area in relation to the size of their territory are:

• Paraná 34%
• Sao Paulo 33%
• Rio Grande do Sul 30%

“Until 1985, over nearly five centuries with different cycles of agricultural frontier expansion, Brazil converted 60% of the entire area currently occupied by agriculture, mining, cities, infrastructure, and other anthropogenic areas. The remaining 40% of this conversion occurred in just four decades, from 1985 to 2024,” says Tasso Azevedo, General Coordinator of MapBiomas.

Loss of biomes

The Amazon has lost 52.1 million hectares of natural areas in the last 40 years . It was the most affected biome. Three out of every five hectares of agriculture have emerged in the last 20 years.

The Cerrado lost 40.5 million hectares of native vegetation between 1985 and 2024. In the Caatinga, this reduction was 9.2 million hectares. In the Atlantic Forest, it was 4.4 million hectares. In the Pantanal, 1.7 million hectares of natural areas were lost.

The Pampa was the biome with the greatest proportional loss of native vegetation in the last 40 years, with the loss of 3.8 million hectares.

"The peak of this transformation was between 1995 and 2004, when deforestation reached its highest peaks. But between 2005 and 2014, the lowest net forest loss was recorded since 1985. This trend has reversed in the last decade, which has been marked by degradation, climate impacts, and agricultural expansion ," emphasizes Julia Shimbo, scientific coordinator of MapBiomas and researcher at IPAM.

*Under supervision of Thiago Félix