Peru lost 4 million hectares of natural vegetation in 40 years, according to a study.

Lima, June 5 (EFE) - Peru has lost 4.1 million hectares of natural vegetation in the last 40 years, mainly in the Amazon, due to activities such as mining, which has grown by 2,325% in that period, according to a study on land cover and use by the MapBiomas platform released Thursday in Lima.

The reduction in natural vegetation in Peru is estimated at 4% compared to its 1985 extent, while anthropogenic (human-caused) land use has grown by 4.6 million hectares, a 44% increase, compared to 1985, according to the report "Maps and Data That Speak" covering the period 1985-2024.

Andrea Bravo, technical coordinator of MapBiomas Peru, explains that 79.1% of Peru's territory is still covered by natural vegetation, such as forests, mangroves, grasslands, and scrublands, while 32.5% is covered by anthropogenic uses, such as agriculture, grazing land, forest plantations, mining, and urban development.

As a result of these changes, the Amazon has lost 3 million hectares of natural vegetation, and the Equatorial Dry Forest has seen a 4.2% reduction in area.

Renzo Piana, executive director of the Instituto del Bien Común, comments that the Amazon has been the biome most affected by mining, with a 157-fold increase in its surface area. Currently, more than 50% of the country's mining activity is concentrated in the southern region of Madre de Dios.

For her part, Julia Shimbo, scientific coordinator of the MapBiomas Network, points out that agricultural activity has increased in 63% of the country's districts, compared to 43% 40 years ago.

Agricultural areas extend over 14.2 million hectares, representing 11% of the total territory, with the greatest increase in the cultivation of oil palm (1,062%) and rice (193%).

The Amazon accounts for 35% of rice crops, displacing the coastal desert, which had the majority of these crops in 1985, the study indicated.

Likewise, urban infrastructure grew by 236,353 hectares, with the greatest impact in the coastal desert, close to the country's major urban centers, as coastal hills have lost nearly 23,000 hectares due to this expansion.

The regions most affected by the loss of natural vegetation are Loreto, Ucayali, San Martín, Huánuco, and Madre de Dios.

Meanwhile, forests have been the most affected natural vegetation, with a loss of 2.5 million hectares, while the equatorial dry forest has seen a proportional decrease of 9% of its original area. EFE

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