MAAP #161: Soy Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
The Amazon Soy Moratorium has often been credited with significantly reducing soy-related deforestation in the Amazon over the past 15 years. The Moratorium is a voluntary zero-deforestation agreement in which traders agree not to purchase soy grown on land cleared…
MAAP #155: Deforestation Hotspots in the Venezuelan Amazon
We present here the first report of a series focused on the Venezuelan Amazon, which covers over 47 million hectares of the northern section of the Amazon biome (above western Brazil). As the Amazon Base Map indicates, Venezuela is a…
Amazon Fire Tracker 2021: August update
Following the intense Amazon fire seasons of both 2019 and 2020, we are closely tracking 2021 with our unique real-time Amazon fire monitoring app.* We have documented 246 major fires across the Amazon thus far this year, as of August…
Amazon Fire Tracker 2021: Brazilian Amazon Fire Season Intensifies
We have documented 24 major fires in the Brazilian Amazon thus far in 2021 (as of June 29), based on our unique real-time Amazon fire monitoring app, In 2020, we demonstrated the power of the app, documenting over 2,500 major…
Amazon Fire Tracker 2021: Brazilian Amazon Fire Season Begins
Last year (2020), we demonstrated the power of our real-time Amazon fire monitoring app (see MAAP #118 and MAAP #129). In a novel approach, the app uniquely combines data from the atmosphere (aerosol emissions in smoke) and the ground (heat…
MAAP #132: Amazon Deforestation Hotspots 2020
We present a first look at the major hotspots of primary forest loss across the Amazon in 2020 (see Base Map).* There are several major headlines: We estimate over 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of primary forest loss across…
MAAP #129: Amazon Fires 2020 – Recap of Another Intense Fire Year
Following the intense Amazon fire season of 2019 that made international headlines, here we report another major fire year in 2020. Using the novel data from our real-time Amazon Fires Monitoring app,* we documented over 2,500 major fires across the…
MAAP: Fires in the Bolivian Amazon 2020
We have detected 120 major fires this year in the Bolivian Amazon, as of the first of October (see Base Map).* The majority of these fires (54%) occurred in savannas, located in the department of Beni. Another 38% of the…
Amazon Fire Season Intensifies; Shifts to Raging Forest Fires
We have documented 1,650 major fires in the Brazilian Amazon this year, and well over half (60%) have occurred in September.* We have been detecting around 62 major fires a day during September, relative to 18 in August (and 2…
Brazilian Amazon Fires Intensify in September
Although August was severe, early September saw the Brazilian Amazon fires intensify even more. September shot up to an average of 53 major fires per day across the Brazilian Amazon, up from 18 in August (and 2 in July).* In…