Painting the Picture of Tropical Tree Cover Change: Brazil

Brazil: Cumulative Loss in Tree Cover 2000-2006

Note: This case study is part of a WRI series on tree cover change across the globe. The first poster (1.2 Mb), titled Painting the Global Picture of Tree Cover Change: Tree Cover Loss in the Humid Tropics, depicts tropical hot spots in Brazil, Cambodia, Central Africa, and Indonesia.

The hotspot for deforestation in South America is the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso. Hotspots of forest change appear in red in the inset map at right. Below, high-resolution Landsat images show the systematic expansion of soy plantations in the region.

Images

 

Brazil Using Satellites to Monitor Deforestation

By Stephen Adam

Large scale deforestation began in the 1970s and accelerated in the 1990