According to the study, Peru has lost 49.9% of its glaciers and 3.9% of its natural vegetation in 37 years.

Peru lost 3.9% of its natural vegetation between 1985 and 2021, according to data released by the initiative. MapBiomes. This situation has affected the country’s ecosystems, its biodiversity, its ecosystem services, its functionality and connectivity.

“With a loss of 49.9% in nearly four decades, alarming glacier retreat due to the effects of climate change and black carbon caused by burning in the Amazon stand out. Glaciers feed the springs of the country’s great rivers, supplying water to millions of people,” MapBiomas Peru said in a statement.

The study also found that another ecosystem heavily affected by human activity is the seasonally dry forests in the north of the country. “This coverage has changed dramatically, and what worries us most is that we are irretrievably losing it,” said Renzo Piana, executive director of the Institute for the Common Good (IBC).

“The losses were huge and there is no chance of reversing this trend. The data is alarming and gives a sense of urgency for the need for strong and decisive action for these natural hiding places in Peru,” warned Piana, who highlighted the impact on the food security of the local population.

The IBC Executive Director emphasized the innovative and new character MapBiomas Peru: “This initiative provides invaluable information for understanding the dynamics of the use of natural resources in the country, since it contains very complete information and over a very wide period of analysis covering the entire territory of Peru.”

The initiative is being led by the Institute for the Common Good, in collaboration with Red MapBiomes and RAISG (Amazon Geo-Society and Environmental Information Network) with the technical cooperation of the Ministry of the Environment and Observatory of the National Agrarian University of La Molina.

The results of this study were presented today at an event called Peru: 37 years of change in a mega-diverse country. Collection 1.0 of annual land cover and use maps of Peru (1985–2021).

For Sandra Rios, IBC Researcher and Coordinator MapBiomas Peru”this first collection fills a large information gap in regions of the country outside the Amazon region.”

“New categories of analysis have been added to those that the IBC has been doing to map the natural cover of the Amazon. The initiative analyzes forest formations of all kinds, shrublands, mangroves, glaciers, agricultural areas, urban areas and mining,” he explained.

Peru: 37 years of change in a mega-diverse country

According to the study, in 1985, 59% of the territory of Peru was covered with forests, 3.1% was in dry forests in the north of the country and in the inter-Andean regions, and 55.9% was in the Amazonian forests. In the same year, 7.2% (about 9.3 million ha) were man-made areas such as pastures, crops, mining or urban areas.

An analysis of the change in natural cover showed that anthropogenic areas in 2021 reached 10.4% of the territory (about 13.5 million hectares). However, the extent of human intervention varies across the biomes studied: 7.8% for the Amazon biome, 11.4% for the coastal desert, 14% for the equatorial dry forest, and 15.2% for the Andes biome. The departments that will have the lowest anthropic area share in their territory by 2021 are Moquegua and Tacna (1.9% and 2.7% respectively).

They also highlighted the expansion of the mining industry and infrastructure during the study period. The former increased from 3,000 ha to over 119,000 ha (up 3,763%) and the latter increased from 99,000 ha to almost 257,000 ha (up 160%).

Accelerated Forest Conversion

The study also warns of an accelerated transformation of the dry forests of northern Peru. This coverage has been little explored and contains many information gaps. According to IBC researcher Kathryn Hopfgartner, “The information generated by MapBiomas Peru shows through scientific and technical data the importance of biomes such as the Equatorial Dry Forest, which contribute significantly to local and national biodiversity. At the same time, the data alerts us to changes in natural cover caused by various human activities carried out between 1985 and 2021.”

According to the researcher, this activity threatens the natural balance of ecosystems, making them more vulnerable to climate change, and also threatens the food security of the population.

Regarding forest cover analysis, Andrea Bravo, also an IBC researcher, highlighted that the Amazon biome has undergone the most changes in the last 37 years, with a total loss of 2.6 million hectares (3.6%) compared to its natural vegetation. Although the equatorial dry forest biome has a much smaller extent (4.6 million ha), in relative terms it represents the largest loss (8.4%) of its natural vegetation.