COURT CASE WITH INCRA
In May 2021, following a judicial dispute initiated in 1994, Roncador lost to INCRA the ownership and possession of over 4,500 hectares of native forest so far included as part of Roncador’s farm. &Green has been monitoring the evolution of the forested area since the incident to understand its impact on the forest. Recent satellite images of the 5,000-ha area, compared with 2020 images, reveal that whilst the area is not yet deforested, the forest is experiencing material degradation. Forest alerts of the past year, underpin that the forest—now left unprotected—is being exploited by people, likely for small-scale wood extraction. More than a year after the fact, the case highlights the role that private sector agents such as Roncador can play in forest protection in Brazil.
The images below show the map of the lost area in 2020 (left) and in 2022 (right), based on two different satellite images (Planet on the left and NDVI on the right). Using Planet images, it is evident that the forest has suffered a visible degradation. Using NDVI, the differences in forest quality are enhanced, as we observe a decrease in ‘greenness’, due to a deterioration of the vegetations’ health.
