Images 1 and 2 shows us how aerosol emission data allows users to prioritize hundreds (or thousands) of heat-based fire alerts. In other words, the aerosol data indicates just the fires that are actually burning lots of biomass and putting out abundant smoke.
As presented in MAAP #118, Amazon Conservation launched a real-time fire monitoring app that specializes in detection of elevated aerosol emissions in the smoke coming from burning Amazon fires. As detailed below, the app just detected the fourth major Amazon fire of 2020 on June 17. All four fires thus far have been in the state of Mato Grosso and burning recently deforested areas (see MAAP #113 for background).
Detection of elevated emissions in the southeastern Brazilian Amazon (Mato Grosso).
Zoom in on the emissions.
Adjust the transparency to see the underlying fire alerts that indicate the exact location of the fires. Obtain coordinates of the source of the fires.
Check the satellite imagery in Planet Explorer. Here is a high resolution Planet image showing the fire burning on June 17. Also see the comparisons below, comparing the the June 17 fires with a pre-fire image from June 10.
Pre-fire image, June 10:
June 17 fires:
Using Planet’s extensive imagery archive, we were able to determine that the fires were burning an area deforested in 2019 (and not a forest fire).
Coordinates: -10.45, -53.55
This two images show us how aerosol emission data allows users to prioritize hundreds (or thousands) of heat-based fire alerts (photo 1). In other words, the aerosol data indicates just the fires that are actually burning lots of biomass and putting out abundant smoke.
This work was supported by the following major funders: USAID/NASA (SERVIR), Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (WRI), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Metabolic Studio, and Erol Foundation.
Finer M, Villa L (2020) Amazon Fire Tracker 2020: Brazil #4 (June 17, 2020). MAAP.
WASHINGTON, DC, June 5 – Amazon Conservation revealed in a new report the ability to predict the exact location of major 2020 fires in the Brazilian Amazon, using deforestation data.
The fires in the Brazilian Amazon made international headlines last year. Through analysis of satellite imagery archives, Amazon Conservation made the significant discovery that many fires were burning in recently deforested areas and were not uncontrolled forest fires. Thus, Amazon Conservation is able to predict 2020 fire locations by identifying major deforestation events that occurred earlier this year.
By analyzing data from different fire alert systems implemented in the region, Amazon Conservation estimates the deforestation of over 150,000 hectares (373,240 acres) of primary forest in the Brazilian Amazon through May 25, 2020. The high amount of deforestation creates high potential for another intense fire season.
The fire analysis method and results were published in a series of reports on MAAP, Amazon Conservation’s real-time monitoring portal.
“Based on our findings last year, we know we can predict the locations of 2020 Brazilian Amazon fires based on recent deforestation,” said Dr. Matt Finer, Senior Research Specialist at Amazon Conservation and lead author of the report. “We identified 20 points with large 2020 deforestation events that are likely to burn soon.”
The report presents a base map with probable 2020 fire locations across the Brazilian Amazon, as well as satellite imagery showing examples of recent deforestation events likely to result in major fires.
“Several of the 2020 deforestation events are quite large, over 5,000 acres,” said Nadia Mamani, co-author of the report. “Large fires in these areas could escape to surrounding primary forest.”
Four of the 2020 deforestation areas predicted to burn are in the state of Mato Grosso.
View the full report here: MAAP #119: Predicting 2020 Brazilian Amazon Fires
About Amazon Conservation
Amazon Conservation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that unites science, innovation, and community to protect the western Amazon – the greatest wild forest on Earth. Amazon Conservation’s has been pioneering conservation efforts in the tropics since 1999. Its unique approach focuses on three strategies: empowering people to become champions for conservation while improving their quality of life; protecting millions of acres of wild places home to hundreds of thousands of species of wildlife; and employing the latest discoveries in science and technology into the field of conservation.
###
For more information contact:
Ana Folhadella
Communications Manager
Amazon Conservation
Office: (202) 234-2356
Info@amazonconservation.org
WASHINGTON, DC, June 10 – Amazon Conservation today announced the launch of a new real-time fire monitoring app, hosted by Google Earth Engine, in anticipation of the 2020 fire season. The app specializes in providing real-time detection and prediction of large fires across the Amazon basin to help prioritize containment efforts by key actors on the ground, such as government agencies and fire brigades. The app can pinpoint the exact location and source of major fires.
A major feature of the app is the detection of major fires across the Amazon, based on aerosol emissions detected by a new European Space Agency satellite. When fires burn biomass, they emit aerosols into the atmosphere, and it’s these aerosol emissions that the satellite is able to detect. The app also contains a cross-reference to commonly-used “fire alerts,” which are additional satellite-based data of temperature anomalies. Users can combine data from these two sources to more reliably establish a fire’s origin point.
“This new app is powerful because it combines the strengths of two key satellite-based data sources: emissions in the air and heat on the ground,” said Dr. Matt Finer, Senior Research Specialist at Amazon Conservation and lead author of the report. “Each data source alone provides basic information, but combined they provide actionable information for the government and firefighters to be able to address major fires.”
The new app has already identified the first major Amazon fire of 2020. In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a fire burned 882 acres of an area that had been deforested in July 2019.
This new finding supports Amazon Conservation’s research during the severe 2019 fire season, which revealed that the majority of fires in Brazil occurred on recently deforested land, not in standing forests.
As recent deforestation continues to lead to severe fires and current analysis shows that the Amazon Rainforest is drier this year due to lower levels of rainfall, this app is an important step in predicting, finding, and containing large fires before they become unmanageable and escape into protected areas or indigenous reserves.
Amazon Conservation has made this fire monitoring app easily available to anyone with an internet connection and will continue to monitor and report fire events as they happen in real-time across the Amazon through its Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP).
About Amazon Conservation
Amazon Conservation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that unites science, innovation, and community to protect the western Amazon – the greatest wild forest on Earth. Amazon Conservation has been pioneering conservation efforts in the tropics since 1999. Its unique approach focuses on three strategies: empowering people to become champions for conservation while improving their quality of life; protecting millions of acres of wild places home to hundreds of thousands of species of wildlife; and employing the latest discoveries in science and technology into the field of conservation.
Sources
MAAP #118: Real-time Amazon Fire Monitoring App Full Report –
https://maaproject.org/2020/amazon-fire-app/
View Amazon Conservation’s Fire Monitoring App on Google Earth Engine –
###
For more information contact:
Amazon Conservation
Office: (202) 234-2356
Info@amazonconservation.org
As presented in MAAP #118, Amazon Conservation launched a real-time fire monitoring app that specializes in detection of elevated aerosol emissions from burning Amazon fires. As detailed below, the app detected the second major 2020 fire on June 8, 2020 in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Step 1. Detection of elevated emissions in the southeastern Brazilian Amazon (Mato Grosso).
Step 2. Zoom in on the emissions, adjust the transparency to see the underlying fire alerts that indicate the fire location.
Step 3. Zoom in again to see precisely the fire location and obtain coordinates.
Step 4. Check the satellite imagery archive in Planet Explorer. Here is a Landsat image (30 meter resolution) showing the fire burned around 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of an area deforested in July 2018. Note that MAAP #113 made the important discovery that most of the 2019 Brazilian Amazon fires were burning recently deforested areas (and not uncontrolled forest fires).
Coordinates
lat: -12.57, lon: -54.06
This work was supported by the following major funders: USAID/NASA (SERVIR), Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (WRI), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Metabolic Studio, and Erol Foundation.
Finer M, Villa L (2020) Amazon 2020 Fire Tracker #2 – Brazil, June 8. MAAP.
Friends of the Amazon,
We are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many other Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color that yet again expose the systemic racism and violence ingrained in our society. We kneel in solidarity with their families, the protesters, and all people fighting against discrimination and racial injustice in all forms and in all countries.
Although our organization is focused on the conservation of the Amazon, we recognize that the continued centuries-long bias and these outrageous acts must be addressed by every organization, government, and individual for real change to happen. The events we are witnessing now serve as an urgent call to action for each one of us to play an active part in breaking down structural racism and cultural norms perpetuating the oppression and exclusion of People of Color, Indigenous communities, and other marginalized groups that continue to suffer every day. Our vision is to achieve a thriving Amazon, and we know that can only happen if people – every single one of us – are able to thrive as well. People should not be just surviving, as many oppressed communities have been forced to do, but truly thriving.
We are thankful to those leading this movement and all allies who are working hard to lift up our nation and advocate for justice worldwide. All of us at Amazon Conservation, in Washington, DC, Peru, and Bolivia are with you in this fight.
– John Beavers and the team at Amazon Conservation
Here we present a first look at 2020 deforestation of primary forest in the Colombian Amazon, in relation to the new published annual data for 2019.*
This new data confirms that deforestation decreased in 2019 (91,400 hectares) after a peak in 2018 (153,900 hectares).
Table 1 shows the recent trend: a major deforestation spike following the 2016 peace agreement (between the Colombian government and the FARC) with a peak in 2018, followed by a major decrease in 2019.
In our first look at 2020, we estimate the deforestation of 76,200 hectares (188,295 acres) of primary forest through June.
Note that we have documented the deforestation of 444,000 hectares (over a million acres) of primary forest in the Colombian Amazon in the past four years since the peace agreement.
*Global Forest Watch recently released the annual forest loss data for 2019.
The Base Map shows the 2020 deforestation hotspots.*
As in previous years, they are concentrated in an “arc of deforestation” in the northwest Colombian Amazon.
This arc includes four protected areas (Tinigua, Chiribiquete and Macarena National Parks, and Nukak National Reserve) that lost 0ver 7,700 hectares (19,000 acres) of primary forest in 2020 (see Table 2).
Tinigua National Park is the most impacted protected area with the deforestation of 5,100 hectares (12,600 acres). Note the rare occurrence of a major deforestation hotspot in the middle of a national park.
Chiribiquete National Park lost 510 hectares (1,260 acres) in the recently expanded sections of the park.
The arc of deforestation also includes two Indigenous Reserves (Resguardos Indígenas Nukak-Maku and Llanos del Yari-Yaguara II) that lost 4,000 hectares (9,885 acres) so far in 2020.
*To see detailed map of the 2019-20 primary forest deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, click here.
Below, we show 2020 examples within the arc of deforestation in the northwest Colombian Amazon.
Image 1 illustrates the extensive deforestation within Tinigua National Park over the last five years continuing in 2020.
Image 2 shows an example of deforestation within Chiribiquete National Park (western sector) between January (left panel) and April (right panel) of 2020.
Image 3 shows an example of deforestation within the Llanos del Yari-Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve between January (left panel) and April (right panel) of 2020.
Table 2 shows the loss of primary forest in four protected areas located in the arc of deforestation arc in the northwestern Colombian Amazon, between 2015 and 2020.
The data presented in this report were generated by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory at the University of Maryland (Hansen et al 2013) and presented by Global Forest Watch. For the years 2015-18, we used annual forest loss data. For the years 2019-20, we used early warning alerts (GLAD alerts), and thus represent an estimate. Note that some forest loss detected early in the year may include events from late the preceding year.
Our study area is the Amazon biogeographical limit (not strict Amazon watershed) as highlighted in the Base Map.
Specifically, for our estimate of forest cover loss, we multiplied the annual “forest cover loss” data by the density percentage of the “tree cover” from the year 2001 (values >30%).
For our estimate of primary forest loss, we intersected the forest cover loss data with the additional dataset “primary humid tropical forests” as of 2001 (Turubanova et al 2018). For more details on this part of the methodology, see the Technical Blog from Global Forest Watch (Goldman and Weisse 2019).
All data were processed under the geographical coordinate system WGS 1984. To calculate the areas in metric units the UTM (Universal Transversal Mercator) projection was used: Colombia 18 North.
Lastly, to identify the deforestation hotspots, we conducted a kernel density estimate. This type of analysis calculates the magnitude per unit area of a particular phenomenon, in this case forest cover loss. We conducted this analysis using the Kernel Density tool from Spatial Analyst Tool Box of ArcGIS. We used the following parameters:
Search Radius: 15000 layer units (meters)
Kernel Density Function: Quartic kernel function
Cell Size in the map: 200 x 200 meters (4 hectares)
Everything else was left to the default setting.
For the Base Map, we used the following concentration percentages: Medium: 10%-20%; High: 21%-35%; Very High: >35%.
We thank R. Botero (FCDS), E. Ortiz (AAF), and G. Palacios for helpful comments to earlier versions of this report.
This work was supported by the following major funders: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Metabolic Studio, Erol Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (WRI).
Finer M, Mamani N (2020) Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon – 2020. MAAP #120.
The Biodiversity Day Contest: “If you could fly, which bird would you be?”
By María Elena Gutierrez
Most of us living in the city would enjoy the opportunity to spend quarantine in a house in the middle of the forest, closer to nature. We could appreciate spending the day listening to the birds, smelling the flowers, or admiring the movements of a calming river.
COVID-19 has shown us how vulnerable our society is, how the pressure that we put on wild animals has disastrous consequences, and that our individual decisions have to be considered as part of the whole picture. But fear shouldn’t govern us. On the contrary, we should reinvent ourselves as one family living in the same house: Earth.
Because of that, our sister organization in Peru, Conservación Amazónica -ACCA wanted to celebrate Biodiversity Day, May 22nd, in a different manner. We wanted to involve the future leaders who, without a doubt, have a much higher environmental conscious than we do, and who have inherited the responsibility of handling the extremely fragile planet. I am referring to our children.
May 9th was Global Big Day, a day to celebrate the fascinating diversity of birds around the world. Thousands of birdwatchers enter forests and take pictures of birds in their natural habitats, and if they observe a new species of bird they can register it. Peru is the second most bird-diverse country on the planet and since we couldn’t participate this year, we organized a competition for children agews 5-12 to motivate them to birdwatch at home, and to draw pictures of any birds they might see through their windows. We asked them “if you could fly, which bird would you be?” We asked them to describe the bird that they would be and explain their reasoning. The results were marvelous.
Emma, a six-year-old girl from San Miguel (near Lima), demonstrated her watercolor skills by painting a picture of a bird who has the power to turn anyone who harms the jungle into better people. Her wings also heal sick animals when they fall to the ground.
For his bird, a 7-year-old Daniel invented a bird called the cacatrua. Daniels bird is considered extinct, has feathers with a wide array of colors, and feeds on wild flowers. On top of all this, it can give presents to it’s friends and asks for help from it’s woodpecker friends only when necessary.
Amazonas, an 11-year-old from Huanchoc, Cusco, labored for three days trying to paint her flycatcher just right. We dare to say that she has the makings of a true artist, but we hope that she continues to quench her thirst for knowledge about birds. In her description, she denotes that her bird can help exterminate pests that reside on plants. We don’t know if she’s aware of it, but she touched on a very important role birds play in the Amazon, as their presence is vital to maintain an equilibrium within an ecosystem.
Behind each piece of art there are very moving cases, such as the teacher who submitted drawings from her students. The mothers who, on top of all their other responsibilities, are now homeschooling their children and working remotely, sent us pictures of their kids. Or the proud fathers who saw their kids painting the birds of their surroundings.
The vast majority of children describe themselves as feeling like they’re birds in captivity. Some have a more optimistic tone, while others are annoyed by their entrapment. They also saw in the bird the quality that deep down they liked more of in themselves. Some described memories with their grandfathers, being awestruck at the elegance of the birds they would watch together. Others were extremely passionate about the biology of the creatures. But they all had the ingenuity and sincerity that only a child can possess.
Will there be birdwatchers in the future? Will businesses be environmentally conscious? Will we convert anyone into an investigator in our biological stations at Wayqecha or Los Amigos? Will there be artists focused on conservation? Political leaders with sustainable visions? We don’t know. But we have learned that in the middle of a pandemic there’s one thing to focus on for the future: promoting environmental knowledge to children. And we hope that you add on to our agenda, whether you’re an artist, professor, journalist, uncle, aunt, mother, or father. If your child wants to fly, would you help build them wings?
The Brazilian Amazon fires made international headlines last year.
By analyzing an archive of satellite imagery (from Planet Explorer), we made the major discovery that many of the 2019 fires were actually burning recently deforested areas (MAAP #113). In fact, many of the fires were burning areas deforested earlier that same year of 2019.
Thus, we may predict 2020 fire locations based on identifying major deforestation events in the early months of this year.
Using a novel methodology*, we estimate the deforestation of over 150,000 hectares (373,240 acres) of primary forest in the Brazilian Amazon thus far in 2020 (through May 25). Thus, there is high potential for another intense fire season.
Below, we illustrate the process of predicting 2020 fires based on recent deforestation.
Note: In MAAP #118 we just reported that the first major fires of 2020 were in fact burning recently deforested areas (2018-19).
In the Base Map, the yellow dots indicate the largest new deforestation events that we predict are likely 2020 fire locations. See below for satellite imagery examples (letters A-G). Two of the likely fire points are within protected areas (see Annex).
Below is a series of images showing the major deforestation events of 2020 that we predict are likely upcoming fire locations (see letters A-G on the Base Map above for context). The red arrows point to the major deforestation events. Note that all of the deforestation areas are surrounded by primary forest that could be impacted if fires escape. Also note that several deforestation areas are quite large, over 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres).
Zoom A shows the deforestation of 775 hectares (1,915 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Mato Grosso.
Zoom B shows the deforestation of 205 hectares (510 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Mato Grosso.
Zoom C shows the deforestation of 395 hectares (980 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Mato Grosso.
Zoom D shows the deforestation of 300 hectares (735 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Mato Grosso.
Zoom E shows the deforestation of 840 hectares (2,075 acres) between January (left panel) and April 2020 (right panel), in the state of Rondônia.
Zoom F shows the deforestation of 2,395 hectares (5,920 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Amazonas.
Zoom G shows the deforestation of 5,990 hectares (14,800 acres) between January (left panel) and May 2020 (right panel), in the state of Pará.
World Eckert IV (Decimal Degrees) (X,Y)
Zoom A: -54.862624, -11.971904
Zoom B: -55.087026, -11.836788
Zoom C: -56.999405, -11.979054
Zoom D: -57.128192, -11.896948
Zoom E: -62.658907, -8.477944
Zoom F: -58.892358, -6.567775
Zoom G: -54.948419, -7.853721
The July – September 2020 forecast points to an active fire season in most of the western Amazon – much of central and southern Peru, northern Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Acre and Rondônia. This year’s forecast indicates an active fire season of similar magnitude to those of 2005 and 2010, when widespread fires were observed in the region.
To more information check:https://firecast.cast.uark.edu/
*We developed a novel methodology to estimate deforestation of primary forest in the Brazilian Amazon. For 2020 data, we merged confirmed GLAD alerts (University of Maryland) with select DETER alerts from the Brazilian space agency (INPE). This methodology takes advantage of the higher resolution of the GLAD alerts (30 meters vs 64 meters from DETER), but also the national expertise of the Brazilian government.
For the DETER data, we used the three deforestation and mining categories (DESMATAMENTO CR, DESMATAMENTO Vegetal, and MINERACAO). We avoided overlapping areas with the GLAD alerts.
Finally, we filtered the data for only primary forest loss. For our estimate of primary forest loss, we intersected the forest cover loss data with the additional dataset “primary humid tropical forests” as of 2001 (Turubanova et al 2018). We also removed all previous forest loss data 2001-19.
We thank J. Beavers, S. Novoa, K. Fernandes, and G. Palacios for helpful comments to earlier versions of this report.
This work was supported by the following major funders: Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (WRI), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Metabolic Studio, and Erol Foundation.
Finer M, Mamani N (2020) Deforestation and Fires in the Brazilian Amazon – 2020. MAAP:
In time for the next fire season, we are relaunching an improved version of our Amazon real-time fire monitoring app, hosted by Google Earth Engine.
When fires burn, they emit gases and aerosols.* A new satellite (Sentinel-5P from the European Space Agency) detects these aerosol emissions.*
The major feature of the app is user-friendly and real-time identification of major fires across the Amazon, based on the aerosol emissions detected by Sentinel-5P.
Since the data updates daily and is not impacted by clouds, real-time monitoring really is possible. Our goal is to upload each day’s new image by midnight.
Using the app, we recently identified the first major Amazon fire of 2020 on May 28, in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. It was burning an area recently deforested in July 2019.
Below, we provide instructions on how to use the app, with the May 28 fire as an example.
Step 1. Open real-time fire monitoring app, hosted by Google Earth Engine. Scan the Amazon for aerosol emissions of major fires (indicated in yellow, orange, and red). In this case, we spotted elevated emissions in the southeast Brazilian Amazon (on May 28, 2020).
Step 2. Click the “Layers” menu in the upper right for more options. For example, clicking “State/Department Boundaries” we see the emissions are coming from Mato Grosso. Note you can also add “Protected Areas” and check the dates of the images and alerts.
Step 3. Zoom in on the aerosol emissions.
Step 4. Adjust (slide down) the transparency of the emissions layer to see the underlying fire alerts. We use the alerts to pinpoint the source of emissions (see purple circle). Obtain coordinates of the alerts by clicking on the map and then checking the “Coordinates” bar on the left (below Instructions).
Step 5. We entered the coordinates into Planet Explorer and found a high-resolution image for that same day (May 28), confirming the first major Amazon fire of 2020. The burned area was 357 hectares (882 acres).
Using the Planet archive, we discovered that this exact area was deforested between July and August 2019, and then burned in May 2020. This fits our recent major finding that many Brazilian Amazon fires are actually burning recently deforested areas (MAAP #113). For more on how to predict upcoming fires based on recent deforestation, see MAAP #119.
The July – September 2020 forecast points to an active fire season in most of the western Amazon – much of central and southern Peru, northern Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Acre and Rondônia. This year’s forecast indicates an active fire season of similar magnitude to those of 2005 and 2010, when widespread fires were observed in the region.
To more information check:https://firecast.cast.uark.edu/
We thank E. Ortiz, S. Novoa, K. Fernandes, G. Palacios for helpful comments to earlier versions of this report.
This work was supported by the following major funders: USAID/NASA (SERVIR), Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (WRI), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Metabolic Studio, and Erol Foundation.
Finer M, Villa L, Mamani N (2020) Real-time Amazon Fire Monitoring App. MAAP: #118.
Loading...
1012 14th Street NW · Suite 625 · Washington DC 20005 · USA
202-234-2356 / info@amazonconservation.org
