Brazilian Legal Amazon Research Articles

Importância e desafios da vigilância em saúde em uma região de fronteira internacional: um estudo de caso

Abstract The objective of This article was to identify the main challenges of promoting health surveillance in a triple border region of the Brazilian legal Amazon. A single explanatory case study was carried out, with a qualitative approach, which used documentary data and interviews. The Results demonstrate that health surveillance is essential for disease control in the studied region. In addition, the differences between the health systems of the three countries that make up the triple border (Brazil, Colombia, and Peru) showed to be the main challenge for establishing health policies.

Characterization of land cover-specific fire regimes in the Brazilian Amazon

Humans profoundly alter fire regimes both directly, by introducing changes in fuel dynamics and ignitions, and indirectly, by increasing the release of greenhouse gases and aerosols from fires, which can alter regional climate and, as a consequence, modify fuel moisture and availability. Interactions between vegetation dynamics, regional climate change and anthropogenic pressure lead to high heterogeneity in the spatio-temporal fire distribution. We use the new FireTracks Scientific Dataset that tracks the spatio-temporal development of individual fires to analyse fire regimes in the Brazilian Legal Amazon over the period 2002–2020. We analyse fire size, duration, intensity and rate of spread in six different land-cover classes. Particular combinations of fire features determine the dominant and characteristic fire regime in each of them. We find that fires in savannas and evergreen forests burn the largest areas and are the most long lasting. Forest fires have the potential for burning at the highest intensities, whereas higher rates of spread are found in savannas. Woody savanna and grassland fires are usually affected by smaller, shorter, less-intense fires compared with fires in evergreen forest and savanna. However, fires in grasslands can burn at rates of spread as high as savanna fires as a result of the easily flammable fuel. We observe that fires in deciduous forests and croplands are generally small, short and low intense, although the latter can sustain high rates of spread due to the dry post-harvest residuals. The reconstructed fire regimes for each land cover can be used to improve the simulated fire characteristics by models and, thus, future projections.

Digital literacy, remote teaching and access during COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts on postgraduate female in Brazilian Amazon

The aim of this article is to understand how digital literacies, the usage of digital technologies and emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the life of women participating in stricto sensu Graduate Programs of Universities in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. This study is based on the perspective of digital literacies, which considers the social uses of reading and writing. This is a mixed approach, exploratory and applied research. The data has been collected during August and September, 2021, by means an online platform, based on a 30-item semi-structured questionnaire. The data set comprises 218 valid answers from female professors (n = 100) and students (n = 118) (age 18+) of the surveyed Universities. The results show that the respondents have faced many challenges in emergency remote teaching during the pandemic, in particular, work overload, scarce interaction with colleagues, limitations in the use of digital technologies, difficulties in accessing digital technologies, mental/physical health problems and lack of boundaries between academic and family activities performed in the household environment. Nonetheless, the digital technologies have enabled them to participate in events (livestreams, webinars, conferences, courses), meeting research groups and proceed with classes and research. In a geographically large and economically disadvantaged region, as is the case of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, public policies are essential in order to promote literacy events and activities.

Levels of exhaled carbon monoxide in steakhouse workers in a town in the Brazilian Legal Amazon region

Occupational exposure to smoke from commercial kitchens such as steakhouses may be associated with an increase in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and an acute reversible decrease in pulmonary functional capacity, and exposure to coal smoke is a risk factor for the development of respiratory diseases. The objetive of study was evaluate the levels of exhaled carbon monoxide (COex) and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in steakhouse workers. This is an observational, longitudinal and prospective study in the city of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil. The total of 29 professionals working in steakhouses participated in the study. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, work environment characteristics, life habits and respiratory symptoms were extracted from questionnaires. COex and COHb levels were measured before exposure and every hour up to a 4 hour exposure period. Twenty-nine workers participated, with a predominance of females (55.2%), with a mean age of 36.40±11.49 years. It was observed that 18 (62%) of the workers had respiratory symptoms. COex and COHb levels were elevated after 4 hour exposure (p<0.05), but within acceptable parameters. COex and COHb levels are elevated in a short period of time to occupational exposure to steakhouse activities.

Family Farming and Social and Solidarity Economy Enterprises in the Amazon: Opportunities for Sustainable Development

A research gap in the scientific literature has arisen concerning the challenge faced by actors who formulate public policies on the compatibility between economic activities and sustainable development in the Amazon. The main question that guided this study was whether the organizations of the social and solidarity economy (SSE), in the form of family farming cooperatives and associations, are sufficiently consolidated in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. To achieve the intended objective, the authors used the ArcGIS Pro 10.8 software with an exploratory analysis of spatial data (AEDE). Specifically, the mapping clusters tool was used to present and discuss the distribution of establishments and enterprises in a municipality. The database was the “2017 Agricultural Census” from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the most recent official government data available. Establishments and enterprises of family farming in the 772 municipalities of the Legal Amazon with credit access in a period between August 2017 and February 2019 were selected for analysis. We confirmed the hypothesis that SSE projects are essential to achieve sustainability in the Amazon. In addition, this study suggests that this model can be an essential alternative to support public policies for the sustainable development of the biome.

Mining Is a Growing Threat within Indigenous Lands of the Brazilian Amazon

Conserving tropical forests is crucial for the environment and future of our climate. Tropical rainforests worldwide, including the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA), offer exceptional ecosystem services. However, the disturbances that have been occurring more frequently within them are endangering their key role in tackling climate change. An alternative approach for preserving the intact forests that remain in the BLA is the delimitation of Indigenous Lands (ILs), which can, additionally, ensure the well-being of the traditional peoples inhabiting there. An increase in deforestation rates of the BLA in recent years, due to the weakening of the Brazilian environmental policy, is not confined to unprotected areas but is also occurring within ILs. Under this scenario, mining, not allowed in ILs, is a growing threat in these protected areas. Thus, using the freely available MapBiomas dataset, we have quantified for the first time the total mining area within ILs of the BLA from 1985 to 2020. Such activity jumped from 7.45 km2 in 1985 to 102.16 km2 in 2020, an alarming increase of 1271%. Three ILs (Kayapó, Mundurukú, and Yanomami) concentrated 95% of the mining activity within ILs in 2020 and, therefore, they require closer monitoring. Most of the mining in ILs in 2020 (99.5%) was related to gold extraction. A total of 25 of the 31 ILs of the BLA where mining activity was detected in at least one of 36 years analyzed (~81% of them) had a statistically significant increasing trend according to the Mann–Kendall test at 5%. The datasets used or cited in this study (MapBiomas, PRODES, and DETER) enable the monitoring of the current status of ILs, and the identification of emerging trends related to illegal activities. Therefore, they are critical tools for legal authorities.

Assessment of the effect of landowner type on deforestation in the Brazilian Legal Amazon using remote sensing data

SummaryThe Brazilian Legal Amazon contains important reservoirs of forest that are threatened by stakeholders’ behaviour. The Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR; Rural Environmental Registry) database was used to define the limits and classes of landowner according to private property size. For each class, we identified the annual forest-cover/cover-loss profile at 2-year intervals from 2000 to 2020 based on Brazilian Annual Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Project (MapBiomas) and Program for Deforestation Monitoring (PRODES) data. The analysis revealed that very large landowners dominate the CAR-registered area and that deforestation is influenced by landowner type. The cumulative contributions to deforestation were 2 916 245.96, 1 234 216.79, 2 871 400.36, 2 805 058.62 and 2 637 485.60 ha for very large landowners, large landowners, medium landowners, small landowners and very small landowners, respectively. Very large landowners (1.7% of the total number of properties) had more forest on their properties but caused the greatest amount of deforestation in total, often associated with agribusiness. Small and very small landowners were more numerous (21.0% and 68.3% of the total number of properties, respectively), but they owned a small total area and contributed less to total deforestation. Property size and landownership asymmetry should be considered in deforestation control policies and commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Mapping Roads in the Brazilian Amazon with Artificial Intelligence and Sentinel-2

This study presents our efforts to automate the detection of unofficial roads (herein, roads) in the Brazilian Amazon using artificial intelligence (AI). In this region, roads are built by loggers, goldminers, and unauthorized land settlements from existing official roads, expanding over pristine forests and leading to new deforestation and fire hotspots. Previous research used visual interpretation, hand digitization, and vector editing techniques to create a thorough Amazon Road Dataset (ARD) from Landsat imagery. The ARD allowed assessment of the road dynamics and impacts on deforestation, landscape fragmentation, and fires and supported several scientific and societal applications. This research used the existing ARD to train and model a modified U-Net algorithm to detect rural roads in the Brazilian Amazon using Sentinel-2 imagery from 2020 in the Azure Planetary Computer platform. Moreover, we implemented a post-AI detection protocol to connect and vectorize the U-Net road detected to create a new ARD. We estimated the recall and precision accuracy using an independent ARD dataset, obtaining 65% and 71%, respectively. Visual interpretation of the road detected with the AI algorithm suggests that the accuracy is underestimated. The reference dataset does not include all roads that the AI algorithm can detect in the Sentinel-2 imagery. We found an astonishing footprint of roads in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, with 3.46 million km of roads mapped in 2020. Most roads are in private lands (~55%) and 25% are in open public lands under land grabbing pressure. The roads are also expanding over forested areas with 41% cut or within 10 km from the roads, leaving 59% of the 3.1 million km2 of the remaining original forest roadless. Our AI and post-AI models fully automated road detection in rural areas of the Brazilian Amazon, making it possible to operationalize road monitoring. We are using the AI road map to understand better rural roads’ impact on new deforestation, fires, and landscape fragmentation and to support societal and policy applications for forest conservation and regional planning.

Death by a thousand cuts: Small local dams can produce large regional impacts in the Brazilian Legal Amazon

In the Amazon Basin, large-scale problems, such as deforestation, over-fishing, climate change and large hydroelectric dams, are now recognized. However, many small-scale activities could exert significant cumulative, negative environmental impacts. We conducted a spatial analysis of small-scale dams used for hydropower and aquaculture in the central and southwestern portions of the Brazilian Amazon Basin. We found a very high density of small dams in these areas, and suggest that these dams, in the aggregate, are in fact pernicious because they are likely to have large impacts on the aquatic environment of these sub-basins in the Amazon. We recommend increasing the size and number of protected areas where dams are not allowed, and restricting the number of licenses for dams in order to reduce future intensification of their impacts.

Spatial and temporal distribution of the annual parasite incidence of malaria in Brazil: a case study of Acre between 2003 and 2017

Malaria is a public health problem in Brazil. This study aims at analyzing the number of cases and the Annual Parasite Incidence (API) of malaria in Brazil, which was calculated using the number of cases and the population data. Special attention was placed on the State of Acre within the time interval between 2003 and 2017. 4,647,102 malaria cases were registered in the Brazilian Legal Amazon between 2003 and 2017, which represents 99.99% of the total number of national cases. The API of malaria decreased in the Brazilian Legal Amazon over that period. Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, and Acre were the States with the highest number of occurrences. Among these States, only Acre showed an increasing trend in the number of cases in 2017 when compared to the infection cases reported in 2003. Three municipalities of this State, Cruzeiro do Sul, Mâncio Lima and Rodrigues Alves, represented most of the total number of cases from the State and had an increase in the number of cases in the period. Transmission does not occur homogeneously in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. This study is important for the analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution of the malaria occurrences at Acre.

A COMPARISON OF CLOUD REMOVAL METHODS FOR DEFORESTATION MONITORING IN AMAZON RAINFOREST

Abstract. Deforestation in tropical rainforests is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, an important driver of climate change. For decades, the Brazilian government has maintained monitoring programs for deforestation detection in the Brazilian Legal Amazon area based on remotely sensed optical images in a protocol that involves considerable efforts of visual interpretation. However, the Amazon region is covered with clouds for most of the year, and deforestation assessment can rely only on images acquired in the dry season when cloud-free images are more likely to capture. One possibility to lessen that restriction and enable deforestation detection throughout the year is to synthesize cloud-free optical images from corresponding SAR images, which are only marginally influenced by atmospheric conditions. This work compares a set of such image synthesis methods, considering deforestation detection in the Amazon forest as the target application. Specifically, we evaluate three deep learning methods for cloud removal in Sentinel-2 images: a conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) based on the pix2pix architecture; an extension of that method, which uses atrous convolutions (Atrous cGAN) to enhance fine image details; and a non-generative method (DSen2-CR) based on residual networks. In the evaluation, we assess both the quality of the generated images and the accuracy obtained when performing deforestation detection from those images. We further compare those methods with an image aggregation tool available in Google Earth Engine (GEE Tool), which creates cloud-free mosaics from sequences of images acquired at nearby dates. In this study, we considered two sites in the Brazilian Amazon, characterized by distinct vegetation and deforestation patterns. In terms of the quality metrics and classification accuracy, the Atrous cGAN was the best performing deep learning method. The GEE Tool outperformed all those methods when dealing with images from the dry season but turned out to be the poorest performing method in the wet season.

Status and trends of pollination services in Amazon agroforestry systems

With the growing demand for food production worldwide, natural landscapes are increasingly being replaced by agricultural areas, which directly affects biodiversity and local ecosystem services. Agroforestry systems, which are the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems, are a more sustainable production approach that has been increasing in several forested areas around the globe. Here, we examine the trends of agroforestry in the Brazilian Legal Amazon and estimate the associated value of ecosystem services mediated by pollinators. Using data from 2006 and 2017, we detected an increase in agroforestry activity in the Amazon, both in the number (3.27%) and in the area (23.18%) of establishments. Crop production in forested areas increased by 45.61% in the same period, and the main products cultivated in both years were native products from the Amazon, such as açaí , Brazil nut and babassu. Although the crop data are from forested areas, all the five crops with the highest production value are associated with agroforestry in the Amazon. Pollination services also increased during the same period from US$73.3 to US$156.7 million (113.76%). In 2006, the value of pollination services corresponded to 44% of the total crop production, and it jumped to 64.43% in 2017. Bees and beetles were the two main groups of pollinators quoted for the analysed crops. Our estimates show the important contribution of pollinators to crop production in the Amazon forest. However, a growing loss of Amazon forest has been observed, and this can jeopardize pollinators and have detrimental consequences on food production in the near future. Public policies are urgently needed to encourage crop production in harmony with natural areas, combining the protection of forests and pollinators with food production.

An observational analysis of precipitation and deforestation age in the Brazilian Legal Amazon

Rainfall in the Amazon is influenced by atmospheric circulation dynamics on multiple spatiotemporal scales. Anthropogenic influences such as deforestation, land-use changes, and global climate change are also critical factors in determining rainfall in South America. Modeling studies have projected a drier climate with the ongoing deforestation in the Amazon, but observational evaluation of the variability of rainfall and deforestation patterns has been limited. This study analyzes spatiotemporal trends in rainfall between 1981 and 2020 and relationships with deforestation age in the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA). An improved rainfall dataset is derived by calibrating the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data with observations from a rain gauge network in the BLA. Trend analysis is employed to identify significant changes in precipitation over the BLA. Satellite-based land cover data Mapbiomas and ET datasets are used to evaluate similar trends. While large spatial variability is observed, the results show coherent relationships between negative dry-season rainfall trends and old-age deforested areas. Deforestation aged up to a decade enhanced rainfall and older deforested regions have reduced rainfall during the dry season. These results suggest substantial changes in the hydroclimate of the BLA and increased vulnerability to future land cover change.

The Brazilian Legal Amazon Odonatofauna: a perspective of diversity and knowledge gaps

The Brazilian legal Amazon occupies approximately 61% of its territory, covering a large part of Brazil's biodiversity. This large territorial dimension generates huge gaps in the animal diversity understanding, for example, the poor knowledge regarding the Odonata order. Worldwide, Odonata has almost 6,500 described species, with approximately 1,800 being recorded for the Neotropical region. Data on the Odonata order in the legal Amazon is still scarce, mainly due to its particularities, and little is known about the diversity of dragonflies in some of Brazilian states. Thus, the objective of this study is to present a list of species occurring in the states that make up the Brazilian legal Amazon. The list was made from the analysis of approximately 165 scientific papers, in addition to occurrence records contained in the SiBBr and GBIF databases. 641 species were found, which is equivalent to approximately 69% of the odonatofauna in Brazil. The states with the greatest diversity were Amazonas (n=364), Pará (n=310) and Mato Grosso (n=285). The study also indicated a low level of knowledge of the Odonata order in the states of Tocantins and Maranhão, in addition to the area of ​​the Guianas shields, especially in the states of Amapá and Roraima. Carrying out new inventories and building catalogs is essential for understanding the biodiversity in this region, especially in areas with greater need.

Cloud cover and its impact on Brazil's deforestation satellite monitoring program: Evidence from the cerrado biome of the Brazilian Legal Amazon

The creation of a satellite rapid alert programme (DETER-A) in 2004 was a cornerstone of the Brazilian government's strategy to reduce deforestation. This programme allowed authorities to detect and respond rapidly to periods of deforestation. Due to the fact that the policy instrument was based on multispectral remote radar, weather-related obstacles posed a continuous impediment to the study of deforestation. This paper investigates to what extent cloud cover has reduced the effectiveness of the DETER-A program to detect deforestation. To test this hypothesis, survival model analysis is undertaken on satellite data derived measures of local deforestation. The emphasis is on the state of Maranhão, which is separated into two areas by an arbitrary line of demarcation (Legal Amazon delimitation) where the forest on one side is covered by the satellite monitoring program while the other is not. The results suggest that following the implementation of the satellite monitoring program, there was more deforestation in those years with more cloud persistence in the area covered by the program. Counterfactual simulations indicate that the absence of clouds would have prevented deforestation equivalent to almost 7% of the study region, which is equivalent to 73 million tonnes of CO2 with a value of US$ 366 million. If the current monitoring system was replaced with the experimental policy instrument DETER-C/DETER INTENSO, cloud cover would be less of an impediment to deforestation detection.

Colonização no Brasil Central: a fronteira agrícola em Mato Grosso entre as décadas de 1950 a 1970

This article seeks to insert itself in the debate on the history of the expansion of the agricultural frontier in Central Brazil, proposing a dialogue with different temporalities and occupation models. However, the temporal and spatial cut-off of this study refers to the study of pioneer colonization processes in the state, with emphasis on two distinct regions, the north, and southwest of Mato Grosso, between the years 1950 and 1970. The research uses a documentary source produced during field research by German geographers such as Gerd Kohlhepp and Gottfried Pfeifer, and who are part of Kohlhepp's private archive. The work seeks to dialogue with the theme of the border as part of the theoretical-methodological assumptions of environmental history and historical geography, describing the complex relationships between society and nature in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The study also allows us to understand the national and foreign investments that helped to transform this region into one of the global areas of greatest agricultural production

Ultrasound Assisted Pretreatments Applied to Cupuaçu Husk (Theobroma grandiflorum) from Brazilian Legal Amazon for Biorefinery Concept

Cupuaçu husk (CH) is the waste of a common fruit from a native species of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The current study investigated the influence of ultrasound (US) combined with aqueous, acid, alkaline, and ionic liquid (IL) pretreatments on the chemical and physical aspects of CH and the yield of chemical platforms production, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural (FF), using IL. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to feature the raw and pretreated biomass. The highest levels of glucose (9.90 g L-1) were observed in the liquid fraction resulting from the acid + US pretreatment followed by acid hydrolysis. The IL + US pretreatment recorded the best performance in removing lignin. Based on XRD analyses, ultrasound increased crystallinity of all pretreated samples as a result of the removal of cellulose’s amorphous fraction. However, it promoted accessibility to adopted reagents by increasing biomass exposure due to cavitation. The best yields of HMF and FF were recorded from hydrolysis of the solid fraction resulting from the acid + US (12.94%) and alkaline + US (48.84%) pretreatment, respectively. These results indicate satisfactory performance of ultrasound assisted pretreatments to the simplified and economic conversion of biomass into value-added products.

Hospitalization Due to Fire-Induced Pollution in the Brazilian Legal Amazon from 2005 to 2018

Fire is widely used in the Amazon as a ubiquitous driver of land management and land cover change. Regardless of their purpose, fires release a considerable amount of pollutants into the atmosphere, with severe consequences for human health. This paper adds to the extant literature by measuring the causal effect of fires on hospitalizations, using the approach of instrumental variables, whose validity is assessed with multiple statistical tests. A wide range of confounders are added as covariates, seizing on the accuracy enhancement potential of a broad and fine-grained dataset that covers 14 years of the whole Amazon territory at a municipal–monthly level. The results reveal a positive effect of fire on hospitalizations due to respiratory illnesses in general, and particularly in those due to asthma. A 1% increase in pollution concentration would increase hospitalizations by 0.14% at a municipality–monthly level. A total of 5% of respiratory hospitalizations were estimated to be attributable to fire-induced pollution, corresponding to 822 cases per month. The analysis demonstrates that the coupling of econometrics and remote sensing data is a promising avenue towards the assessment of impacts caused by fires, which may be applied to other regions of the world subjected to anthropogenic fires.

Mining threatens isolated indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon

The largest concentration of isolated indigenous peoples in the world is in the indigenous lands of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. However, the right to self-isolation and the survival of these societies are at risk because powerful interests want to exploit the natural assets of their relatively untouched areas. These ambitions are reflected in a recent bill (PL191/2020), which proposes opening up indigenous lands to mining. We assess the threat imposed by mining to isolated peoples and the indigenous territories they occupy. Specifically, we cross data on mining requests received by the National Mining Agency with information on the distribution of isolated indigenous groups recorded by the Socio-Environmental Institute, in order to evaluate the number and aerial extent of requests for mineral prospecting and operation registered in indigenous lands with isolated groups. We also analyze whether mining requests are related to the presence of isolated groups, the state of knowledge about them, and the current existence of illegal mining operations. Our results indicate that, even though mining is not yet allowed in indigenous lands, mining companies are very active in the search for exploitable areas in these territories. If bill PL191/2020 passes, mining operations would affect more than 10 million hectares in 25 indigenous lands in the Legal Amazon region that are home to 43 isolated groups. We found that the situation is especially worrisome for 21 isolated groups whose lands concentrate 97% of all mining requests. Mineral-rich areas overlap remote areas where more indigenous peoples persist in isolation, so that mining requests are significantly related to the presence of isolated groups. Nonetheless, we show that companies are hesitant to invest in lands with well-known isolated groups that could impede the licensing process and pose reputational risks to the companies. Brazil’s mechanisms for environmental and indigenous protection have been dismantled by the current presidential administration and offer no guarantees for a safe coexistence between extractive operations and isolated peoples. Thus, the approval of bill PL191/2020 could lead to undesired contact and the extinction of a large number of unique peoples, societies and cultures.

Dichotomous analysis of gaseous emissions as influenced by the impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil: São Paulo and Legal Amazon.

Atmospheric contaminants severely impact air quality in large global urban centers. The emergence of COVID-19 in China in December 2019 and its expansion around the world reduced human activities on account of the implementation of a social isolation policy. In Brazil, COVID-19 arrived in February 2020, and a policy of social isolation was adopted in March by state governments; this work aimed to evaluate pollutant gas emissions in Brazil in the face of the pandemic. In the city of São Paulo, the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) were analyzed at three automatic monitoring stations of the Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo (CETESB). In this way, reductions in concentrations of these gases were observed after the decree of social isolation on March 24, due to a noticeable drop in vehicle traffic in the city. A reduction in concentrations of NO2, between 53.6 and 73%, and a decrease in concentrations of CO, from 50 to 66.7%, were obtained at the monitoring stations. Another impact caused by COVID-19 was the increase in deforestation and fires was identified in the Brazilian Legal Amazon after social isolation, due to the decrease in the inspection of environmental agencies. The fires produce thermal degradation of the biomass, generating polluting gases and material particulate. These atmospheric contaminants are extremely harmful to the health of Amazonian populations. Summed to the expansion of COVID-19 in this region, all these factors combined cause the public health system to collapse. CO2eq emissions increase estimates, according to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation System technical report, ranged from 10 to 20% in 2020, compared to those from 2018. If Brazil maintains deforestation at this pace, it will be difficult to meet the emission reduction targets agreed at COP21.