The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has slowed by nearly 50 percent compared to last year, according to government satellite data released Wednesday. The decline is the largest since 2016, when current measurement methods began.
In the past 12 months, the Amazon rainforest lost 4,300 square kilometers, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island in the United States. That's a nearly 46 percent decrease compared to the previous period. Brazil's deforestation monitoring year runs from August 1 to July 30.
But there is still much work to be done to stop the destruction. In July, tree felling increased 33 percent compared to last year. João Paulo Capobianco, Executive Secretary of the Environment Ministry, explained at a press conference in Brasília that the spike was due to a strike by officials at the federal environmental agency.
The figures are preliminary and come from the Deter satellite system run by the National Institute for Space Research, which is used by environmental law enforcement agencies to monitor deforestation in real time. More accurate figures on deforestation are usually released in November.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has committed to achieving “zero deforestation” by 2030. Lula’s current term ends in January 2027. Amazon deforestation has declined significantly since the end of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration in 2022. During Bolsonaro’s administration, forest loss reached its highest level in 15 years.
About two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil. The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest, twice the size of India. It absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which helps slow climate warming. It also holds about 20 percent of the world's fresh water and has a biodiversity that scientists still don't fully understand, including at least 16,000 species of trees.
During the same period, deforestation in Brazil’s vast savanna, known as the Cerrado, increased by 9 percent. The loss of native vegetation reached 7,015 square kilometers, an area 63 percent larger than the destruction in the Amazon.
The Cerrado, the world’s most biodiverse savanna, is far from receiving the same protection as the rainforests to the north. Most of Brazil’s soy production, the country’s second-largest export, comes from privately owned areas in the Cerrado.
“The Cerrado has become a ‘sacrificial biome.’ Its topography is suited to large-scale, mechanized commodity production,” Isabel Figueiredo, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Society, Population and Nature Institute, told The Associated Press.
Both Brazilians and the international community care more about forests than savannas and open landscapes, he said, even though these ecosystems are also highly biodiverse and important for climate balance. (ah/ft)
