Rondônia, Brazil

Description

The conversion of tropical rain forests to pasture and cropland is having dramatic effects on the environment. Particularly intense and rapid deforestation is taking place in the state of Rondônia, Brazil, part of which is shown in this series of Landsat images.

About 30% (3,562,800 km²) of the world's tropical forests are in Brazil. The estimated average deforestation rate from 1978 to 1988 was 15,000 km² per year. In Rondônia, 67,764 km² of rain forest had been cleared through 2003—an area larger than the U.S. State of West Virginia.

Systematic cutting of forest vegetation starts along roads and then fans out to create the "feather" or "fishbone" pattern, which begins to show in the eastern half of the 1984 image.

**Area of rain forest cleared in Rondônia**
Year	Area cleared
1978	4,200 km²
1988	30,000 km²
1998	53,300 km²
2003	67,764 km²

Imagery

Every picture has a story to tell

June 19, 1975, Landsat 2 (path/row 249/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

June 24, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

July 16, 1986, Landsat 5 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

June 22, 1992, Landsat 4 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

Aug. 10, 2001, Landsat 5 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

July 5, 2011, Landsat 5 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

July 18, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

July 27, 2019, Landsat 8 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

June 25, 2022, Landsat 9 (path/row 232/67) — Rondônia, Brazil

Correlated

Additional story information

References

Ellis, W.S., Allard, W.A., and McIntyre, L., 1988, Rondonia—Brazil's imperiled rain forest: National Geographic, v. 174, no. 6, p. 772–799.

Lindsey, R., 2007, Tropical deforestation: NASA Earth Observatory, available online at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/. (Accessed August 30, 2012.)

NASA, 2010, Amazon Deforestation: NASA Earth Observatory, available online at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/deforestation.p…. (Accessed May 15, 2012.)

NASA, 2012, Landsat top 10: international deforestation patterns in tropical rainforests: NASA, available at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/40th-top10-amazon.html. (Accessed August 30, 2012.)

Pedlowski, M.A., Matricardi, E.A.T., Skole, D., Cameron, S.R., Chomentowski, W., Fernandes, C., and Lisboa, A., 2005, Conservation units—a new deforestation frontier in the Amazonian state of Rondônia, Brazil: Environmental Conservation, v. 32, no. 2, p. 149–155. (Also available online at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&ai….)

Skole, D., and Tucker, C., 1993, Tropical Deforestation and Habitat Fragmentation in the Amazon—Satellite Data from 1978 to 1988: Science, v. 260, no. 5116, p. 1905–1910.

UNEP, 2005, Tropical forest—Rondônia, Brazil, in One planet, many people—atlas of our changing environment: Nairobi, Kenya, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), p. 184–185.

White, P.T., and Blair, J.P., 1983, Tropical rain forests—Nature's dwindling treasures: National Geographic, v. 163, no. 1, p. 2–46.