According to officials on Thursday, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 22.3 percent in the year ending in July, reaching a five-year low, as the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attempts to stop the destruction of the largest rainforest in the world.
According to the yearly PRODES deforestation surveillance program of the national space agency INPE, satellite monitoring revealed that over the period of August 2022 to July 2023, 9,001 square kilometers (3,475 square miles) of forest cover were removed in the Brazilian Amazon.
For the first time since 2018, before the far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019–2022), which oversaw a major rise in clear-cutting in the Amazon, the total was less than 10,000 square kilometers.
“An explosion of crime, following a complete dismantling of the government’s environmental structures,” Environment Minister Marina Silva stated during a press conference that Bolsonaro was in charge.
The Lula administration has significantly boosted environmental crime fines and anti-deforestation initiatives since taking office on January 1.
But Silva acknowledged that the government would have a difficult time achieving Lula’s commitment to achieving zero deforestation by 2030, noting “a mix of land grabs, illegal mining and fishing, and drug and arms trafficking” as the main causes of the rainforest’s devastation.
Because the Amazon is home to hundreds of billions of carbon-absorbing trees that slow down global warming, it is a vital resource in the fight against climate change.
But scientists warn that it is becoming more and more vulnerable, maybe reaching a “tipping point” where a significant section disappears and becomes savanna.
“This is a forceful result that seals Brazil’s return as a partner in the fight against climate change,” Marcio Astrini, the head of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.
But conservationists urged the government to step up its crackdown on environmental crime.
“This is still a high rate” of deforestation, said Mariana Napolitano, of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil office.
“The Amazon is suffering from a very high level of degradation, which makes the forest more susceptible to fires.”
The data was released a few days after INPE, citing a severe drought in the area, reported more than 22,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon in October—the highest number for the month in 15 years.
