Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon has dropped by 30.6% compared to the previous year, marking the lowest level of destruction in nine years, officials announced on Wednesday. Within a 12-month timeframe, the Amazon rainforest saw a reduction of 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles) in its forested area, an expanse roughly equivalent to the size of Delaware.
These promising results were revealed in Brazil’s presidential palace, presenting a stark contrast to the policies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s predecessor, the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. Under Bolsonaro’s administration, emphasis was placed on agribusiness expansion at the expense of forest protection, leading to the weakening of environmental agencies and deforestation rates soaring to a 15-year high.
In addition to the Amazon, deforestation in Brazil’s extensive savannah, the Cerrado, decreased by 25.7%, marking the first such decline in five years. Despite this progress, 8,174 square kilometers (3,156 square miles) of this biodiverse savannah were destroyed. Located in central Brazil, the Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse savannah but suffers from fewer legal protections compared to the Amazon rainforest.
Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin announced a strategy to combat fires and deforestation in both the Amazon and the Cerrado, underscoring the government’s commitment to preserving these critical ecosystems. However, the administration of President Lula has faced criticism from environmentalists for supporting projects believed to threaten these regions. Such projects include paving a highway through an old-growth area, initiating oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River, and constructing a railway to transport soy to Amazonian ports.
Brazil uses a deforestation monitoring system that tracks data from August 1 through July 30. Therefore, Wednesday’s report does not account for the damage caused by forest fires in the past few months. These fires, spurred by a historic drought, burned an area larger than Switzerland. While much of the damage is categorized as degradation rather than clearcut deforestation—due to the fires predominantly spreading through leaf litter rather than the forest canopy—the full impact is yet to be evaluated and will be further analyzed through continued satellite monitoring in the coming months.
Government officials are already worried that the deforestation rate could rise next year, particularly as the Amazonian city of Belem is set to host the annual U.N. climate talks, known as COP30. The Amazon basin, an area twice the size of India, contains the world’s largest rainforest, with about two-thirds located within Brazil. This region holds vast stores of carbon dioxide, significantly mitigating climate change, and it contains around 20% of the world’s fresh water and boasts a biodiversity that includes 16,000 known tree species.
