Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest though the annual rate of forest loss has generally been slowing since 2004. However, rates of deforestation jumped again in 2008, 2013 and 2015. In Brazil, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE, or National Institute of Space Research) produces deforestation figures annually. Their deforestation estimates are derived from 100 to 220 images taken during the dry season in the Amazon by the Landsat satellite, also may only consider the loss of the Amazon rainforest – not the loss of natural fields or savannah within the Amazon biome. The native tribes of the Amazon have often been abused during the
Amazon rainforest Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago. Subsequent development led to late-prehistoric settlements along the periphery of the forest by AD 1250, which induced alterations in the forest cover. For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon rainforest was only ever sparsely populated, as it was impossible to sustain a large population through agriculture given the poor soil. Archeologist Betty Meggers was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book "Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit