Deforestation in Mato Grosso’s Amazon
Forest (PRODES/2015)
Characteristics, current policies and what needs to be done1
Executive Summary
Mato Grosso is a key state within the Brazilian Amazon which can reconcile an increase in
agricultural production while reducing deforestation, a fundamental equation to reduce the role of
emissions from the agriculture and land use, land-use change sectors in global climate change. Between
2005 and 2014, Mato Grosso reduced deforestation in its Amazon Biome by 87%, while more than doubling
its GDP. In 2015, however, PRODES detected 1,508km² of deforestation in the state, the highest rate since
2008. In this document, we present the main characteristics of the deforestation polygons detected by
PRODES from August 2014 to July 2015, as well as the main measures taken so far to reduce this rate. We
also propose recommendations for a long lasting reduction in deforestation. The Mato Grosso strategy
“Produce, Conserve and Include” presented in COP21 covers part of these recommendations.
Characteristics
Current policies
What needs to be done?
● Despite a great reduction in deforestation
since 2005, illegal deforestation fronts
remain active in Mato Grosso;
● 20 municipalities concentrate more than 70%
of deforestation in Mato Grosso;
● Most of the deforestation in identified areas
occur in private properties, with 60% of
deforestation plots located inside large
properties (> 15 MF);
● Large deforestation plots (>100ha) represent
41% of the deforested area;
● Transgressors are betting on illegal
deforestation even after registering in the
Rural Environmental Registry (CAR).
● State inspection has
increased while federal
inspection has
remained set;
● The Forest Code is
being implemented at a
slow pace;
● New actions are being
implemented in the
municipalities.
● Publish
a
List
of
Illegal
deforestations and embargoes;
● Implement the Forest Code by
accelerating
CAR
validation,
recovering and compensating of
environmental deficits;
● Engage municipalities in the fight
against deforestation;
● Make data from CAR, licensing and
environmental inspection available to
the public;
● Establish new private incentives
for deforestation free agriculture.
Characteristics of the deforestation in the Mato Grosso’s Amazon Forest in 2015
From 2009 to 2014, deforestation in Mato Grosso’s Amazon Biome fluctuated around an average of
1,000 km² a year. In 2013 and in 2015, there was in increase (compared to the previous year) of 50% and
40%, respectively (Figure 1). Although these recent numbers are small when compared to the annual rates
1
Data used for this work: The analysis were done using PRODES deforestation polygons clipped to the boundaries of
Mato Grosso state. PRODES only monitors the Amazon biome of Mato Grosso. Considering PRODES’ polygons for all of
the Amazon biome, the deforestation added up to 5,273.46 km². The state of Mato Grosso was responsible for 1,346
km2 (26%), even though PRODES reports a rate of 1,508 km2. This difference occurs because INPE adds the deforested
areas of the previous year which were covered by cloud in the previous reporting period.
from 2005 to 2008, the maintenance of around 1,000 km² of annual deforestation rates and the increases
detected in 2013 and 2015 show that deforestation is not yet under control in the state of Mato Grosso.
Year after year, the concentration of clearings detected by PRODES in 20 of the 141 municipalities of
Mato Grosso portrays active deforestation frontiers. In 2015, 72% of the deforestation plots were detected
in 20 municipalities, while only 10 of those were responsible for 52% of all deforestation in the state (Figure
2). In this context, the case of the Colniza municipality is an emblematic example: in 2015, its clearings have
represented more than 17% of the state’s rates. Most clearings in Colniza happen in unidentified areas,
clearly indicating the need for environmental registration (CAR) and land tenure regularization.
Concentration of 2015
deforestation polygons (hotspot)
Figure 1 Regions where deforestation is concentrated in Mato Grosso (Source: Prodes/Inpe)
The size of deforestation plots in Mato Grosso and other Amazon states have been decreasing in the
past 5 years. In 2015, from the 5,107 deforestation plots detected in Mato Grosso by INPE (National Institute
for Space Research), 4,593 (89%) were smaller than or equal to 50 ha (Figure 3).
At the same time, in 2015 PRODES detections indicated an increase in plots larger than 100 ha. Their
number increased by 82% from 2013 to 2015, and while they used to cover 25% of all deforested area in
2013, in 2015 that share increased 64%, amounting to a total of 41%. Rural properties and unidentified areas
contained 95% of the plots larger than 100 ha.
In 2015, 47% of deforestation (638 km²) was detected in unidentified areas. Another 35% (536 km²)
of the deforestation happened inside private properties, while 17% (245 km²) were in settlement projects.
Deforestation inside Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units remained at low levels, with 0.5% (6.74 km²)
and 0.4% (5.38 km2) respectively.
An analysis of deforested areas inside the different classes of land tenure shows that the recent 25%
increase in clearings happened mainly inside private properties and in unidentified areas (Figure 4). Among
private properties, 60% (1,055) of the deforestation plots were detected in large properties (>15 MF)2 (Table
1).
2
The fiscal module (FM) in Mato Grosso’s Amazon biome varies from 60 ha to 100 ha. Therefore, properties larger than
15 FM are at least 900 ha in size .
Figure 2: Evolution of deforestation from 2005 to 2015 (Source: PRODES/Inpe).
Table 1 Deforestation plots by size in identified private
properties.
Figure 3: Deforested area by plot size from 2013 to 2015
(Source: PRODES/Inpe)
Figure 4: Deforested areas (km²) by class of land tenure (Source: PRODES/Inpe)
The increase in beef price by 26.5% in 2014, followed by another 13.8% increase in
2015, along with real estate speculation are possible reasons for this increase deforestation in
large properties.
According to a statement made by Mato Grosso’s State Environmental Secretariat
(SEMA-MT), based on data not yet available to the public, 60% of the deforestation occurred in
areas registered in the national environmental registry (SICAR), as determined by the Forest
Code. The difference found between SIMLAM’s October 2014 and SICAR’s November 2015
share of properties, suggests that transgressors are betting on a hypothetical regularization of
their environmental crimes that would come from the CAR.
Finally, according to our analysis of deforestation plots in areas of licensed
hydropower plants reservoirs and inside a 20 km² radius of these plants, 7 km² of clearings can
be traced to hydropower generation3, which represents only 0,5% of the 2015 deforestation.
According to declarations by SEMA-MT, based on data not yet available to the public,
8% of the deforestation was legally authorized.
What was done in 2015 to control deforestation?
Data collected from the State Environmental Secretariat showed that law enforcement
operations increased both in number and area. From 2013 to 2015, the area covered by
operations went from 130 km² to 658 km². The number of embargoes also increased from 54
to 214 (Figure 5). Law enforcement by IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environmental and
Renewable Natural Resources) in Mato Grosso continues to show higher numbers than the
state’s enforcement operations. From 2013 to 2015, IBAMA issued an average of 1074 notices
of forestry violation and 480 embargoes every year.
3
The following hydropower plants were analyzed: Teles Pires (Paranaíta and Alta Floresta), São
Manuel (Paranaíta), Complexo Apiacás (Alta Floresta and Nova Monte Verde), Colíder (Itauba, Nova
Canaã, Colíder and Cláudia) and Sinop (Sinop, Itauba, Claudia, Ipiranga do Norte and Sorriso).
Implementation of the Forest Code, a responsibility that is shared between federal and
state governments, is slow in Mato Grosso, as it is in the whole country. Until October 2015,
77% of the area subject to registration in the state had been registered in the CAR4, but the
validation function that has been trialed in Mato Grosso has been applied to only a small
number of properties. Without validation, CAR cannot act as a tool of environmental
regularization and has a limited role in controlling deforestation. Furthermore, the state lacks
regulation for the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) and the establishment of a
follow up and monitoring system for the commitments made to recover and compensate
environmental deficits.
Figure 5: Productivity of Ibama/MT and Sema/MT inspection activites from
2013 to 2015 (Source: Ibama/MT and data collected with SEMA/MT
To regulate rural activity in Mato Grosso, the state government established in August of 2015 a
Provisional Operation Authorization for rural activities (APF). This was done through a state
Decree (230/2015) and Normative Instruction (09/2015). In the period of 2015 to 2017, while
the state is preparing its definite licensing system, integrated to the SICAR and with clear
criteria, the APF allows a declaration to register rural activities, which will allow the lifting of
embargoes from areas that lack environmental license or that were legally deforested before
July 2008. On the online system made available by SEMA/MT, areas detected by PRODES as
clearings made after 2008 without authorization, are automatically blocked from applying to
an APF. According to data obtained from SEMA/MT in October 2015, since its implementation
in August 2015, a total of 1,907 APFs had been requested, and 1,482 had been issued. From
the issued ones, only one helped remove an embargo.
At the municipal level, the Sustainable Municipalities Program (PMS) created in 2014 is
being implemented. As of now, municipalities that have joined the PMS are still responsible for
a great share of the deforestation in the state (58%). However, they are starting to play a new
4
http://www.florestal.gov.br/cadastro-ambiental-rural/numeros-do-cadastro-ambiental-rural
role and through PMS, several action plans have been established to channel activities from
different PMS members in each of these municipalities.
What are the recommendations to control deforestation?
The deforestation detected in Mato Grosso shows that current tools applied to control and
reduce deforestation are not completely fulfilling their role. To correct that, our
recommendations take 2 mutually dependent paths: 1) improve implementation of command
and control policies, and 2) create a positive agenda that involves public policies and private
initiatives. Part of these recommendations is covered by the “Produce, Conserve and Include”
Strategy developed by the Mato Grosso government together with several institutions from
the private sector and civil society.
1) Publishing a List of Illegal Deforestation that publicly exposes the identification and
location of illegal deforesters, with the notices of violation and embargoes showing the
names of transgressor. The high number of deforestation plots happening inside
properties registered in the CAR system shows that the state government needs to
send clear signs that it is capable of identifying transgressors and punishing them
accordingly. This list must also play a key role in excluding these properties from
sustainable supply chains;
2) Implementing the Forest Code. This means going beyond registering properties in
CAR. It means verifying and validating the information given by producers, publishing
the rules for the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), creating incentives for
the recovery of deforested areas and notifying those who made illegal clearings in the
CAR database. An implemented Forest Code is the starting point for controlling illegal
deforestation and the basis for ensuring legality;
3) Involving municipalities in the fight against deforestation, especially the most
deforesting ones, by establishing specific task forces for sensitive topics such as land
and environmental regularization;
4) Making data from CAR, licensing system and environmental inspection available to
the public, so that everyone, including civil society and market actors, can follow up on
transgressors’ actions, widening the government’s control capacity;
5) Establishing new incentives for deforestation free agriculture. This includes a wide
range of incentives that go from credit and fiscal tools, to support from the private
sector, and market purchasing criteria. There is legal framework for those incentives in
the Forest Code, but they have not yet been widely explored.