MAPPING OF AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION IN MATÕES – MA

Agricultural expansion causes changes in the environment, as well as in land use and cover, resulting in the replacement of native vegetation by agricultural fields. This impacts biodiversity, contributes to soil degradation, promotes landscape fragmentation, and causes climate change. Given this scenario, the present research aimed to analyze the expansion of agricultural fields in the years 1994 and 2024 in the rural area of Matões – MA. The relevance of the study lies in the need to understand the environmental consequences of this expansion and to subsidize sustainable territorial planning. It is an applied, descriptive and documentary research, with a quantitative approach, using the IBGE (shapefiles) and MapBiomas (satellite images) databases, processed in the free software QGis. Through the images, it was possible to map and quantify the changes that occurred in the soil of Mato Grosso. The results identified a reduction in forest formation from 88.11% to 71.00%, an increase in pastures from 1.23% to 6.32%, an increase in the mosaic of uses from 0.30% to 14.18%, in addition to the emergence of soybean, mining and other temporary crops. These changes show how agricultural activity has replaced native vegetation to the detriment of environmental conservation. It is concluded that, although agricultural growth in Matões – MA contributes to the regional economy, monitoring and sustainable management strategies are needed to reconcile agricultural production with environmental preservation.