The Tarcísio de Freitas (Republican) government expanded the environmental monitoring capacity of the territory of the state of São Paulo by nine times, through a tool that uses satellite images and geospatial data analysis to identify changes in native vegetation and guide environmental inspection actions.
The tool, implemented by the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Logistics (Semil), is Environmental Monitoring by Satellite Images (Mais).
The scope of monitoring has been growing gradually. Between 2015 and 2022, the territory was analyzed twice a year, totaling 586 thousand km² observed annually. In 2023, the state began to be monitored five times a year (1.36 million km² analyzed) and, in 2024, nine times a year (2.22 million km²).
In 2025, this rate doubled, with monitoring 18 times a year (4.43 million km²)
“Image monitoring allows us to identify signs of changes in vegetation and prioritize areas that need verification in the field. This optimizes the teams’ work and strengthens the State’s response capacity in environmental protection”, says the director of Environmental Protection and Inspection at Semil, André Rocha.
The secretariat identified 2,741 changes in native vegetation between 2023 and 2025, the equivalent of 5,392 hectares with some type of environmental intervention. The information has been used to guide inspection actions and expand the State’s capacity to monitor changes in vegetation cover.
Data analysis shows that 87% of the changes identified occurred in Atlantic Forest areas, and 13% in the cerrado biome.
Furthermore, it was possible to verify that 84% of occurrences involve areas of up to 1 hectare, while 14% correspond to areas between 1 and 5 hectares and 2% exceed 5 hectares. This demonstrates the tool’s ability to detect environmental interventions in small areas.
The initiative was recently presented during a meeting of the State Environmental Council (Consema).
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