Deforestation in Brazil’s Atlantic forest biome down 28% in one year
The area undergoing deforestation in the Atlantic forest fell by 28 percent in 2025 compared to monitoring conducted in 2024 – plunging from 53,303 two years ago to 38,385 hectares (ha) last year.
This is the lowest level on record and confirms the downward trend in deforestation in the biome, as per an assessment by the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation.
The data were released this week, as part of a survey being conducted in partnership with MapBiomas and Arcplan since 2022.
According to the figures, there was a reduction in deforestation in 11 of the biome’s 17 states, notably in Bahia and Piauí. However, all four still rank among the top contributors to forest loss in 2025 – Bahia (17,635 ha), Minas Gerais (10,228), Piauí (4,389), and Mato Grosso do Sul (1,962). These four states accounted for 89 percent of the total deforested area.
In the other states, losses amounted to less than 1,000 hectares.
“Almost all of the destruction recorded (96%) was converted to agricultural use, much of it with indications of illegality,” the foundation noted.
Atlas
The Atlas dos Remanescentes Florestais da Mala Atlântica (“Atlas of Remaining Atlantic Forest Areas”) showed the same trend, with even more striking data – there was a 40 percent shrinkage in deforestation, which fell from 14,366 in 2024 to 8,668 ha in 2025.
The atlas is compiled in a collaboration between the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which has been monitoring the large fragments of mature forests in the biome since 1985. In 40 years of monitoring, the organization reported this is the first time annual deforestation has fallen below 10 thousand hectares.
The results are said to reflect initiatives such as public pressure, social mobilization, environmental policies, and enforcement.
These include Operation Mata Atlântica em Pé (“Standing Atlantic Forest”), the introduction of remote land use restrictions, and the restriction of credit for illegally deforested areas, as well as implementation of the Atlantic Forest Law as the primary instrument for protecting the biome’s native vegetation.
Real risk
Despite the annual decline in the deforested area, Luis Fernando Guedes Pinto, executive director of SOS Mata Atlântica, warns of the need to remain vigilant.
“Deforestation continues to occur. In the Atlantic forest, every lost fragment makes a difference. The challenge is to maintain this trajectory until we eliminate deforestation entirely,” he argued.
He pointed out that there is a concrete risk currently under discussion in the legislative branch, as in 2025 Congress passed two environmental licensing laws.
The foundation argues that these laws weaken the tools to control deforestation just when they are showing concrete results.
“It is a distortion that puts Brazil at odds with the Paris Agreement and increases the risk of climate-related disasters. The numbers show that deforestation drops when the law is strictly enforced using technical criteria. Weakening these protection tools now puts at risk what we have spent years building,” said Malu Ribeiro, director of public policy at the foundation.
