Unaccounted natural vegetation loss in Brazilian Amazon

Abstract 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).