RAD2025

  • A 20.6% decrease compared to 2024 brought deforestation below the one-million-hectare mark for the first time in the MapBiomas Alerta historical series since 2019
  • All biomes in Brazil recorded a reduction in deforested area
  • The Pantanal recorded the largest proportional reduction in deforested area, with a 48.4% decrease compared to 2024
  • The Cerrado remains the biome with the largest deforested area, with 540,614 hectares cleared in 2025
  • Over the past seven years, Brazil has lost more than 10.9 million hectares of native vegetation

In 2025, Brazil reached a milestone in deforestation monitoring: for the first time since 2019, the total area of native vegetation cleared in a single year fell below 1 million hectares. According to RAD2025 (Brazil Annual Deforestation Report), 984,794 hectares were cleared across the country, a 20.6% decrease compared to 2024. Over the past seven years, Brazil has lost 10,913,064 hectares of native vegetation, an area larger than the state of Pernambuco.

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Nearly 2,700 hectares of native vegetation cleared every day

Despite the reduction in deforestation, an average of 2,698 hectares of native vegetation were cleared every day in Brazil in 2025, equivalent to approximately 112 hectares per hour. This is roughly equivalent to 17 Ibirapuera Parks—the largest urban park in the city of São Paulo—being cleared every day. In the Cerrado, 1,482 hectares of native vegetation were lost daily. In the Amazon, deforestation reached 792 hectares per day, equivalent to the loss of approximately five trees per second.

Cerrado and Amazon were the most deforested biomes in 2025

The Amazon and Cerrado together accounted for more than 84% of the total area deforested in Brazil in 2025. The Cerrado remains the biome with the largest deforested area, with 540,614 hectares, accounting for 54.9% of Brazil’s total deforestation, despite a 16.9% decrease compared to 2024. In the Amazon, 289,478 hectares were cleared, a 23.5% reduction compared to the previous year.

The Pantanal recorded the largest proportional reduction among all biomes, with a 48.4% decrease in deforested area compared to 2024, totaling 12,260 hectares lost during the year.

Savanna formations were the most affected type of native vegetation

For the third consecutive year, savanna formations were the most affected by deforestation in Brazil, accounting for 51.4% of the total deforested area, followed by forest formations, with 46.3%. In the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, deforestation predominantly affected forest formations, while in the Cerrado, Caatinga, and Pantanal, savanna formations accounted for the largest share of native vegetation loss.

MATOPIBA and Mato Grosso account for more than 63% of deforestation among Brazilian states

The four states of MATOPIBA (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia) were among the five states with the largest deforested areas in 2025. Together with Mato Grosso, they accounted for more than 63% of the total area deforested in Brazil during the year.

From 2019 to 2025, Pará was the state with the largest deforested area, with more than 2 million hectares of native vegetation lost during the period. However, in 2025, the state recorded a 40% decrease compared to the previous year.

Among the states with the largest absolute reductions, Maranhão, Pará, and Tocantins each recorded a decrease of more than 50,000 hectares in deforested area. Sergipe and Alagoas recorded reductions of more than 60% compared to the previous year.

Agricultural expansion: the main pressure vector

Deforestation associated with agricultural expansion accounted for more than 97% of all native vegetation loss in Brazil over the past seven years. This pressure vector accounted for 99% of native vegetation loss in Brazil in 2025. In the past year, 99% of the native vegetation loss associated with artisanal and small-scale mining was concentrated in the Amazon, with the highest incidence in Pará. Deforestation associated with renewable energy projects, meanwhile, was almost entirely concentrated in the Caatinga, which accounted for 97% of the area deforested by this pressure vector.

Deforestation associated with urban expansion increased by 7% compared to 2024 and was concentrated mainly in the Cerrado and Amazon, which together accounted for more than 60% of the native vegetation loss associated with urbanized areas.

Canto do Buriti (Piauí) had the largest deforested area among Brazilian municipalities

More than half of Brazil’s 5,572 municipalities (2,932) recorded at least one deforestation event detected and validated in 2025. The municipality of Canto do Buriti, in Piauí, ranked first in deforested area for the first time, with 20,877 hectares cleared. This municipality, located in the Caatinga, also recorded the largest individual deforestation event detected in 2025, covering 20,834 hectares. The average daily deforestation in the municipality was 57.2 hectares, equivalent to approximately 80 football fields per day.

The ten municipalities with the largest deforested areas together accounted for 15% of the total deforestation validated in Brazil, with eight of them located in MATOPIBA, the region comprising the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia. MATOPIBA alone accounted for 40% of the country’s native vegetation loss and 70% of the deforestation recorded in the Cerrado.

Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands: areas with the lowest deforestation

Within Conservation Units, 46,257 hectares were deforested in 2025, a 21.4% reduction compared to the previous year. Strict Protection Conservation Units (federal, state, and municipal) recorded a 55.8% decrease, with 2,034 hectares deforested. The Cerrado accounted for 43.5% of deforestation within Conservation Units, 97% of which occurred in Environmental Protection Areas (APAs).

The Rio Preto APA (BA), with most of its territory located in the Cerrado, was the Conservation Unit with the largest deforested area in Brazil in 2025, totaling 7,701 hectares, a 44% increase compared to 2024.

In Indigenous Lands, 12,593 hectares were lost, a 22% reduction compared to 2024. The Porquinhos dos Canela-Apãnjekra Indigenous Land, in Maranhão, remained at the top of the ranking for the third consecutive year, with 4,089 hectares deforested, despite a 34% decrease in deforested area.

In 2025, 30% of Brazil’s Indigenous Lands recorded at least one deforestation event. Between 2019 and 2025, 1.7% (184,622 hectares) of the total area deforested in Brazil occurred within Indigenous Lands.