A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest. Several monitoring organizations — including the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch — have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools this year that show what kinds of crops are being grown, where cattle ranching overlaps with other kinds of land use and how much of the rainforest is being cleared for mining. “We’re seeing all these products starting to come out with all these recent advances in satellite imagery, machine learning and AI,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “To be able to do a direct comparison between crops, cattle and mining — I think it’s very compelling.” MAAP compiled the data into one report this month, creating an “overall estimate” of land use across the nine Amazon countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guyana and Guyana. It could help identify new patterns and trends in drivers of deforestation, Finer said. The data shows that at least 40 different crops are present in the Amazon, amounting to over 106 million hectares (261 million acres), or around 13% of the biome, according to SPAM, a crop distribution platform. Some of the crops are well-known drivers of deforestation, such as soy, which covers over 67.5 million hectares (166 million acres)…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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