MapBiomas launches 1st Atlantic Forest collection of annual maps, covering Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay

Platform shows the evolution of land cover and land use on 1,422,742 km² occupied by the biome - 37% of them covered by native vegetation

Researchers from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay have produced the most complete series of annual land cover and land use maps ever prepared for the Atlantic Forest. They have concluded that the biome had a net loss of native vegetation of 5% in 20 years. Between 2000 and 2019, this area decreased from 554,632 km² to 527,492 km².

Native vegetation now covers 37% of Biome's area and has a high rate of secondary vegetation and many fragmented areas, highlighting the urgency and importance of conservation and restoration of the biome.

The country that had the largest proportional loss of native vegetation was Paraguay, with 10,090 km² (19.2% of the existing area in 2000), mainly due to the expansion of agricultural and pasture areas.

In Argentina, the total loss of native vegetation was approximately 2,106 km² (11% of the area in 2000), decreasing from 19,213 km² in 2000 to 17,107 km², mainly due to the growth of the area of forest plantations.

In Brazil, there was a loss of native vegetation of 14,943 km², from 482,772 km² to 467,829 km². It was the smallest percentage drop in relation to the total area in 2000: 3.1%.

Of the total loss of native vegetation, 67% corresponds to the loss of forest cover and 33% to the loss of non-forest native vegetation

With regard to agricultural activities, agriculture grew 67%, from 155,437.86 km² to 260,101.2 km². And the pasture area fell 23%, from 471,871.64 km² to 362,827.31 km², which indicates an intensification of land use and conversion of pasture areas for agriculture. Another activity that had growna lot was forestry, which has more than doubled in the area in the last two decades, going from 20,928.24 km² to 48,230.09 km² between 2000 and 2019.

With a resolution of 30 by 30 meters and 12 classes in the legend, the MapBiomas Atlantic Forest Collection 1 (2000-2019) covers 1,422,742 km² of the biome that occupies 8% of South America. The platform can be accessed at bosqueatlantico.mapbiomas.org.

Highlights:

The Atlantic Forest occupies 8% (1,422,742 km²) of South America.
92% of the Atlantic Forest is in Brazil (1,309,579.72 km²), 6% in Paraguay (86,071.62 km²), and 2% in Argentina (27,090.57 km²).
Net loss of natural vegetation between 2000 and 2019: 27,139.2 km²;
the agricultural area remained stable, with a fall of 0.9% (from 800,399.35 km² to 793,212.96 km²).
silviculture area (included as planted forest, in the forest class) more than doubled: from 20,945.05 km² to 48,287.53 km² (130.5% increase)
the agricultural area grew 67%, from 155,437.86 to 260,101.2 km²

MapBiomas Trinational Atlantic Forest

MapBiomas Mata Atlântica Trinacional is an initiative that involves a collaborative network of specialists from Argentina (CONICET Institute of Subtropical Biology, UBA Agronomy College, Forestry Sciences College, UNAM, Corrientes Agricultural Experiment Station INTAand NGO Argentine Wildlife Foundation), Brazil (ArcPlan and SOS Mata Atlântica) and Paraguay (NGO WWF Paraguay). The project uses Landsat satellite images (30 x 30 meters of resolution) and cloud computing through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to produce high-tech, low-cost annual land cover and use maps. The initiative is part of the MapBiomas Network, started in 2015 with MapBiomas Brasil (mapbiomas.org).

PRESS

BRAZIL
MapBiomas
Liuca Yonaha
imprensa@mapbiomas.org
+55 (11) 94186-4029

SOS Atlantic Forest
Afra Balazina
afra@sosma.org.br
+55 (11) 99956-7337

ARGENTINA
Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina
emiliano.salvador@vidasilvestre.org.ar
+54 9 3757 56-3235

PARAGUAY
WWF - Paraguay
Gisell Jiménez
gjimenez@wwf.org.py
+595 21 213 146