Brazil’s Amazon deforestation has fallen to its lowest level since records began, official figures show, giving President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a boost ahead of the country’s presidential run-off.
Some 3,335 square kilometres of rainforest were cleared in the 12 months to July, according to Brazil’s space research agency, Inpe. The total was 42 per cent lower than the previous year.
Inpe’s Prodes satellite programme measures forest loss from August to July, when cloud cover is lower. The previous record low was 4,571 square kilometres in 2011-12, while annual losses peaked at almost 30,000 square kilometres in the mid-1990s.
Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco described the latest reduction as “an absolutely stratospheric drop…it’s like a dream” at a news conference in Brasilia.
Marcio Astrini, of the climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima, called the figures “a historic achievement”. He said they showed that “with political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions”.
Lula said on X that the government’s aim was “to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030”. He took office in 2023 after pledging to meet that target.
Deforestation has declined each year since 2022 and is down 71.2 per cent over four years. The fall has been attributed to increased monitoring and tougher penalties for illegal logging.
Forest clearance had risen to a 15-year high during the 2019-22 presidency of Lula’s far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. The Amazon lost an average of about 11,600 square kilometres a year during that period, almost 60 per cent more than in the previous four years.
Amazon deforestation figures released before presidential run-off
Lula will face Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in the run-off on October 25, with polls showing the candidates neck and neck.
Flavio Bolsonaro’s manifesto promises stronger environmental oversight in the Amazon, enforcement focused on organised crime rather than extractive workers and small farmers, and an end to “illegal deforestation” by 2029.
He has also praised his father for opposing what he calls a “radical environmental agenda”. Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for plotting a coup.
Deforestation in the Cerrado savanna, south of the Amazon, also fell by about 24 per cent to 5,517 square kilometres, the lowest level since records began there in 2001.
