According to the government, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reduced by one-third in the first six months of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration compared to the same period last year.
According to satellite photographs obtained by the National Institute of Space Research, a total of 2,649 square kilometers (1,020 square miles) of rainforest were felled from January to June.
This compares to the 3,988 square kilometers lost in the first six months of 2022, when far-right, pro-business President Jair Bolsonaro was still in power.
“We have reached a steady downward trend in deforestation of the Amazon,” Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference.
In the month of June itself the fall was even more pronounced 41 percent compared to June 2022.
Silva attributed the favorable outcomes to Lula’s policy of combating climate change and deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest.
Deforestation in the Amazon increased by 75 percent under Bolsonaro’s presidency, from 2019 to 2022, compared to the preceding decade’s average.
Lula presented an ambitious plan to tackle illicit deforestation in the Amazon last month, just days after opposition members in Congress passed legislation stripping the environment ministry of several important authorities.
Lula’s socialist government promised to take half of all illegally deforested land in special environmental protection areas, set aside three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of protected land by 2027, and expand Brazil’s environmental monitoring network.
“The government is acting again, applying the law and protecting the unique treasure that is the Amazon. That is making the deforestation numbers go down,” said Marcio Astrini, leader of the Climate Observatory environmental group.
Lula, 77, has also attempted to encourage the world’s wealthiest countries to fund programs to protect the rainforest, complementing work done by Norway and Germany through the so-called Amazon Fund.
The environment is a critical concern as the South American trading organization Mercosur negotiates a long-delayed free trade agreement with the European Union.
The EU has issued fresh requests to the four Mercosur countries in order to combat environmental crimes.
