From 1985 to 2021, the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, known for its moist broadleaf tropical rainforest, lost 10% of its native vegetation. According to the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information or Raisg, the deforested area increased from 490,000 to 1,250,000 square kilometres, represented unique destruction in the Amazon.

The statistic are based on annual satellite monitoring from South American countries since 1985. Raisg and MapBiomas, a network of Brazilian nonprofits, universities, and technology startups, collaborated on the report. The losses have been huge, virtually irreversible, and there is no hope of a recovery “Raisg, a union of civil society organisations from the region’s countries, issued a statement. “The data indicates a yellow light, indicating the need for coordinating, deciding, and compelling international action.
Brazil, which controls roughly two-thirds of the Amazon, is also at the front of the destruction. In almost four decades, 19% of its rainforest has been destroyed, primarily as a result of cattle farming expansion helped by road construction. During the time period, the country was responsible for 84% of all forest destruction. Deforestation contributes nearly half of Brazil’s carbon emissions. According to a study published in the journal Nature in 2021, the eastern Amazon has ended to be a carbon sink, or absorber, for the Earth and has now become a carbon source.
Tropical rainforests occupied 74% of the Amazon as of 2021, while 9% of its land was covered by other kinds of natural vegetation. According to Raisg approximate, there are 47 million people living in the 8.5 million square kilometre region. Woods Hole Research Center researcher Wayne Walker stated during a press conference that the Amazon is home to at least 75 billion metric tonnes of carbon storage. That amount of carbon, if it all ended up in the atmosphere now, then it would be equivalent to seven times the world’s annual discharge.