Amazon rainforest monitoring

This micro-site aggregates data on deforestation in the Amazon from several sources. The most timely data comes from Brazil: specifically Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and Imazon, a Brazilian NGO.

Narrative context on these issues can be found at Mongabay’s Amazon rainforest section as well as Mongabay’s regular news reporting on the Amazon in English, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. Recent headlines from these sites can be found at the bottom of this page.

Sections

This site is organized into sections:

Annual data

Annual deforestation in the legal Amazon since 1988, according to INPE's PRODES system. Note: 2023 data is preliminary.
Annual deforestation in the legal Amazon since 1988, according to INPE’s PRODES system. Note: 2023 data is preliminary.

Recent news on monitoring deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

English

  • Amazon lakes overheat as record drought drives dolphin deaths
    on September 6, 2024 at 10:23 pm

    Severe drought and soaring temperatures are causing lakes and rivers in the Amazon to reach dangerously high temperatures, threatening species like the Amazon river dolphin, according to a recent study’s preprint. In 2023, the Amazon experienced its worst drought in recorded history, coupled with the hottest dry season on record. The extreme climate caused the

  • Global carbon capture and storage potential way overblown, study finds
    on September 6, 2024 at 5:45 pm

    A new study finds that the potential for carbon capture and storage is much more limited, by a factor of five or six, than the capacity projected by the United Nations to fight climate change. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates a maximum of 30 gigatons of carbon dioxide can be trapped underground

  • Record number of Indigenous land titles granted in Peru via innovative process (commentary)
    on September 6, 2024 at 3:59 pm

    In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This is not only a remarkable land rights victory for the region, but it also marks a significant step towards addressing climate change, reclaiming Indigenous peoples’

  • Scientists find unexpected biodiversity in an African river, thanks to eDNA
    on September 6, 2024 at 2:50 pm

    When Manuel Lopes-Lima set out to survey aquatic biodiversity on the Corubal River in 2022, he’d set his expectations very low. The river that straddles the West African nations of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau was, after all, very remote and grossly understudied. Two expeditions later, the story has turned on its heels. With the help of

  • The future of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon
    on September 6, 2024 at 8:28 am

    In January 2023, the federal government of the United States issued landmark decisions affecting two controversial projects to exploit mineral resources on public lands. One was an industrial-scale copper mine, the Pebble Mine in south central Alaska, and oil drilling program in the Willow Concessions on the North Slope of Alaska. The Environmental Protection Agency

Spanish

Amazonia

Brazilian Portuguese

Amazonia