Study shows lack of data to prevent Amazon deforestation

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign promise to achieve zero Amazon deforestation by 2030 may be hampered by a blackout of essential data for environmental decision-making.

A study by the Instituto Centro de Vida pointed out that government agencies in the nine states that make up the Legal Amazon only make about 30 percent of essential environmental information available on their websites. 

Pará, the state with the highest deforestation rate last year, had the second-best performance in terms of transparency — but the result was still low, making only 47 percent of data available for consultation. Mato Grosso, the top-ranked state, also performed poorly, with a transparency index of only 53 percent. The worst ranked is Tocantins, with only 11 percent.

In addition, less than half of requests made through the Access to Information Law were answered by government bodies within the legal deadline of 20 days, with the possibility of an extension for another 10 days upon justification.

“The lack of information on the websites of land agencies, especially state agencies, makes it impossible for society to monitor land policies, limiting social control, cooperation between the different bodies of the Executive branch, and the performance of control agencies,” says the report.

The Amazon region has suffered a series of deforestation records in recent years. Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (Inpe) recorded a total deforestation area of 209 square kilometers in the Amazon in February, the last month measured. It was the highest total for February since the Deter real-time deforestation satellites began collecting data in 2015. 

Achieving zero deforestation would save approximately 11,500 square kilometers of forest — the equivalent of 578 million trees and an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. 

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