Análise da Degradação Ambiental na Amazônia Ocidental: um Estudo de Caso dos Municípios do Acre

The general results disclosed by the State of Acre’s final report (2000) showed that part of the Southeast area of the State has been modified for some decades by an occupation process triggered by deforestation and agricultural and cattle raising activities. According to this report, deforestation and burning of vegetation by human activities were the major transformers of the State landscapes and have increased in the last decades. Therefore, the main purpose of this work was to develop a Degradation Index (DI) that would measure the current stage of environmental degradation of the 22 municipalities of State of Acre in the North region of Brazil also attempting to group them in clusters to verify similar characteristics among them. The results indicate that the State of Acre has an average DI of 30,74%, with minimum DI’s in the municipalities of Cruzeiro do Sul and Mâncio Lima with DI equal to zero and Manoel Urbano with a DI equal to 1,80%. The cluster analysis showed that certain regions present a good state of environmental conservation, but also made clear that some degradation indicators present extremely high values.