The Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA), the largest global rainforest on earth, contains nearly 30% of the rainforest on earth. Given the regional complexity and dynamics, there are large government investments focused on controlling and preventing deforestation. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) is currently developing five complementary BLA monitoring systems, among which the near real-time deforestation detection system (DETER) excels. DETER employs MODIS 250 m imagery and almost daily revisit, enabling an early warning system to support surveillance and control of deforestation. The aim of this paper is to present the methodology and results of the DETER based on AWIFS data, called DETER-B. Supported by 56 m images, the new system is effective in detecting deforestation smaller than 25 ha, concentrating 80% of its total detections and 45% of the total mapped area in this range. It also presents higher detection capability in identifying areas between 25 and 100 ha. The area estimation per municipality is statistically equal to those of the official deforestation data (PRODES) and allows the identification of degradation and logging patterns not observed with the traditional DETER system.

Continuous monitoring of forest disturbance on tropical forests is a fundamental tool to support proactive preservation actions and to stop further destruction of native vegetation. Currently most of the monitoring systems in operation are based on optical imagery, and thus are flaw-prone on areas with frequent cloud cover. As this, several Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-based systems have been developed recently, aiming all-weather disturbance detection. This article presents the main aspects and the results of the first year of operation of the SAR based Near Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER-R), an automated deforestation detection system focused on the Brazilian Amazon. DETER-R uses the Google Earth Engine platform to preprocess and analyze Sentinel-1 SAR time series. New images are treated and analyzed daily. After the automated analysis, the system vectorizes clusters of deforested pixels and sends the corresponding polygons to the environmental enforcement agency. After 12 months of operational life, the system has produced 88,572 forest disturbance warnings. Human validation of the warning polygons showed a extremely low rate of misdetections, with less than 0.2% of the detected area corresponding to false positives. During the first year of operation, DETER-R provided 33,234 warnings of interest to national monitoring agencies which were not detected by its optical counterpart DETER in the same period, corresponding to an area of 105,238.5 ha, or approximately 5% of the total detections. During the rainy season, the rate of additional detections increased as expected, reaching 8.1%.

The Brazilian Amazon Satellite Monitoring Program (PRODES Amazonia) tracks forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon but excludes about 6.6% ( ~ 280,000 km²) of non-forest vegetation (NF). Here we developed the PRODES NF system to address this gap by adapting the well-established methodology of PRODES Amazonia. Initial findings from PRODES NF show that the Brazilian Amazon lost 10.46% ( ~ 30,000 km²) of NF area, mainly in the last two decades, with the estates of Mato Grosso, Roraima, and Amapá being primary hotspots of losses. Savannas were the most affected (13.3% of their extent). NF loss strongly correlates (r = 0.87; p < 0.0001) with deforestation, suggesting a continuum of vegetation loss in the biome regardless of the predominant vegetation type. Combining data from PRODES Amazonia and PRODES NF reveals an official estimate of ~798,000 km² in total primary vegetation loss ( ~ 19% of the entire biome) in the Brazilian Amazon by 2022.

A Floresta Amazônica abrange 1/3 das florestas tropicais úmidas do planeta. Desta área, aproximadamente 62% encontra-se no território brasileiro sendo o mais extenso dos biomas brasileiros predominantemente florestais. Considerando as dimensões continentais da Amazônia brasileira e, portanto, todas as dificuldades que evidentemente se apresentam ao policiamento e fiscalização de toda a sua extensão, o monitoramento in loco de todas as áreas autuadas nas ações de fiscalização de combate ao desmatamento torna-se algo quase que inexecutável. O IBAMA é o órgão responsável por essa hercúlea tarefa, de verificar se as leis ambientais estão sendo obedecidas. Caso exista alguma infração, este instituto pode embargar e multar os proprietários. Entretanto, torna-se necessário avaliar se os embargos estão sendo respeitados. Portanto, este estudo teve o objetivo de verificar a efetividade dos embargos em áreas atuadas por desmatamento ilegal, no período de 2004 a 2016, nos municípios Dom Eliseu, Paragominas, Rondon do Pará e Ulianópolis, sudeste do Estado do Pará. Para isto desenvolveu-se uma aplicação web para o monitoramento dessas áreas, tendo como suporte técnicas de geoprocessamento e sensoriamento remoto. A análise destas áreas foi realizada pela interpretação do perfil temporal do NDVI-MODIS juntamente com imagens Landsat 5 e 8. Como resultado, pode-se observar que em apenas 30% dos polígonos houve o cumprimento do embargo (regeneração natural), enquanto os outros 70% estavam irregulares, onde foi encontrado classes de agricultura ou pasto, caracterizando descumprimento de embargo. Os resultados indicaram um elevado potencial da ferramenta para o monitoramento e apresentando-se como excelente recurso de suporte para a fiscalização ambiental. Os resultados também indicam o elevado potencial das análises espectro-temporais de índices de vegetação em conjunto com imagens de melhor resolução espacial para o monitoramento da cobertura vegetal.Â

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been monitored since 1988 by the Brazilian Amazon Satellite Monitoring Program (PRODES Amazonia), and its data has been pivotal in guiding environmental public policies in the country. While forest formations are officially supported by a monitoring program, a significant portion of the Amazon biome (6.6 % or ~280,000 km²) constituted by non-forest (NF) phytophysiognomies (e.g., savanna, grasslands, flood lands) are still unmonitored. To address this information gap, the PRODES NF system was built. First findings based on PRODES NF monitoring indicate that the Brazilian Amazon lost 10.46% (~30,000 km²) of NF area, mostly in the last two decades. The states of Mato Grosso, Roraima and Amapá emerged as the primary hotspots of losses. Among the phytophysiognomies, savannas were the most affected. A strong correlation between NF loss and deforestation was revealed in the Amazon biome, with no statistical differences in terms of relative area, suggesting a continuum of vegetation loss along this biome that does not discriminate between forest and non-forest. Finally, PRODES Amazonia and PRODES NF together provide relevant official data that sum up a total of vegetation loss of ~798.000 km² in the Brazilian Amazon (~19% of the entire biome).

 O presente relatório traz o registro de observações e análises de um trabalho de campo realizado entre 20 e 28 de março de 2023, no estado de Roraima, em parceria entre as instituições INPE e Embrapa Roraima. Os objetivos do trabalho foram checar in loco feições pré-selecionadas, localizadas em áreas florestais e não florestais do estado, comprovando serem ou não antropizadas, conforme a sua classificação nos programas de monitoramento PRODES e DETER (INPE), além de verificar quais são os usos e coberturas presentes nas áreas observadas. Foram percorridos 2.288 km em Roraima, em oito dos quinze municípios do estado, sendo que a maior parte das observações em locais classificados no PRODES como “não floresta” foram em áreas naturais, enquanto, em áreas florestais, a maioria dos pontos se relacionam a áreas desmatadas. Os resultados trazem contribuições para melhorias na detecção pelos programas de monitoramento da Amazônia, chaves de interpretação com exemplos de feições e o link para acesso a um documento com a descrição dos 1.042 pontos visitados.