{"id":1342,"date":"2026-02-13T09:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/?page_id=1342"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:50:43","slug":"mapbiomas-venezuela-40-anos-de-cambios-en-la-cobertura-y-uso-del-suelo-en-el-pais","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/mapbiomas-venezuela-40-anos-de-cambios-en-la-cobertura-y-uso-del-suelo-en-el-pais\/","title":{"rendered":"MapBiomas Venezuela: 40 years of changes in land cover and land use in the country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Since 1985, Venezuela's forests have been reduced by approximately 4.4% of the country's land area, with 76% of this loss occurring north of the Orinoco River.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MapBiomas Venezuela's Collection 3 on Land Cover and Land Use presented new data on the current state of the territory and changes over time, since 1985 to 2024. \u201cWe are launching forty years of maps on the transformation of the Venezuelan territory, covering 25 classes or types of land cover, including natural cover, such as forests, grasslands, and shrublands, and those human-use covers, such as agricultural, urban, and mining,\u201d said Irene Zager, Research Director at Provita. She highlights the incorporation of two natural land covers that had not been previously mapped (Andean grassland\/shrubland and floodable Andean grassland\/shrubland). \u201cTheir incorporation into this new collection contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of change in the Venezuelan Andes\u201d, added the director.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A history of transformation, to rethink the future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The data revealed that between 1985 and 2024, Venezuela lost nearly 30,000 km2<sup>2<\/sup> of forest formations, equivalent to 4.4% of the territory. \u201cOf this decrease, 76% is concentrated north of the Orinoco River, especially in the Los Llanos region, with 10,518 km\u00b2<sup>2<\/sup> (35%); the main cause of transformation is the expansion of agricultural areas,\u201d said Carlos E. Gonz\u00e1lez, LSIGMA-USB Coordinator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, south of the Orinoco River, the changes were smaller. \u201cIn the Amazon and Guayana Esequiba regions, we find 78% of all the country's forest formations; here we have transformed some 7,057 km2<sup>2<\/sup> of forests, which represents 24% of Venezuela's forest loss,\u201d said Rodrigo Lazo, Technical Coordinator of Land Cover and Use at MapBiomas Venezuela, at Provita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anderson Albarran, Coordinator of Socio-Environmental Information Systems at Wataniba, highlighted: \"At MapBiomas Venezuela, we work collaboratively, combining various disciplines and from multiple civil society organizations, academic institutions, and public entities, so that this information on Venezuelan territory is available to the public free of charge. We hope that these maps will support research, conservation, and sustainable management of our natural resources, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u200bMapBiomas Venezuela Annual Seminar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These data were presented during the MapBiomas Venezuela Annual Seminar, held on Thursday, November 6, 2025, in the Dr. Tob\u00edas Lasser Auditorium of the Faculty of Sciences at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event also highlighted the upcoming products to be launched by MapBiomas Venezuela, with MapBiomas Water and MapBiomas Urban.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event featured a panel of experts with Abigail Castillo (UCV and MINEC), Karenia C\u00f3rdova (UCV), Luz Delgado (UNEG), Douglas Rodr\u00edguez-Olarte (UCLA), and Carlos Urdaneta (USB), who discussed the relevance of MapBiomas Venezuela's data and future analysis priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MapBiomas Venezuela\u2019s Award: A celebration of the use of open data&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the seminar, the first edition of the MapBiomas Venezuela\u2019s Award was also held, organized in partnership with the Institute of Zoology and Tropical Ecology of the UCV, as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this first edition, several applications were received for the categories: Undergraduate Student and General. Mylene Guti\u00e9rrez, member of the Award Organizing Committee and professor at the UCV, highlighted: \u201cThis award recognizes innovative projects based on the data made available by our platform. The winning projects addressed highly relevant issues such as the evidence of climate change on agriculture, changes in land cover in protected areas, and deforestation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MapBiomas Venezuela<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MapBiomas Venezuela is an initiative co-created by Provita, Wataniba, the Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling of the Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar University (LSIGMA\u2013USB), and the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) in collaboration with specialists from various NGOs, universities, and research centers in the country, organized by themes and regions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Desde 1985, los bosques de Venezuela se redujeron en alrededor del 4,4% de la superficie territorial; la mayor parte de esa reducci\u00f3n se produjo al norte del r\u00edo Orinoco, donde se concentra un 76% de la p\u00e9rdida La Colecci\u00f3n 3 de Cobertura y Uso del Suelo de MapBiomas Venezuela present\u00f3 nuevos datos para conocer el [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":""},"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false,"infographic":false,"team":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"mayramilkovic","author_link":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/author\/mayramilkovic\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Desde 1985, los bosques de Venezuela se redujeron en alrededor del 4,4% de la superficie territorial; la mayor parte de esa reducci\u00f3n se produjo al norte del r\u00edo Orinoco, donde se concentra un 76% de la p\u00e9rdida La Colecci\u00f3n 3 de Cobertura y Uso del Suelo de MapBiomas Venezuela present\u00f3 nuevos datos para conocer el&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1342\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venezuela.mapbiomas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}