The deforestation fires in this area are notable for their size and intensity. “What is happening there is nothing like the small-scale clearing done by families that was common decades ago,” explained Morton. “These newer clearings are well beyond the scale of what a family could do. We have already identified 10 deforestation fire events in Rondônia that are larger than 50 square kilometers—meaning each one is larger than a combined 7000 soccer fields.” Most newly cleared land in this area will likely be used for cattle pasture, at least initially. In some parts of Brazil, it is fairly common for farmers to start cultivating soybeans in areas that were initially cleared for cattle, a process that can be tracked using time-series imagery from MODIS and Landsat.
