Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest declined to the lowest level on record in the 12 months through July, according to data released by Brazilian space research agency Inpe on Friday.
But whether this globally important success is maintained or reversed is on a knife edge ahead of a presidential election run-off on October 25th between two candidates with sharply different visions for the future of the rainforest.
The incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, fell behind in the first round of voting despite an impressive record in slowing the destruction of the Amazon while also reducing poverty and food insecurity. He is up against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Some 3,335sq km (1,287.65sq miles) of Amazon jungle were destroyed in the 12 months through July, an all-time low in the historical series that goes back to 1988. It was a fall of about 42 per cent from the preceding period.
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The previous lowest level for Brazil’s Amazon deforestation was reached in 2011 to 2012, when 4,571sq km were destroyed. In the mid-90s, the figure had reached a record high of nearly 30,000sq km destroyed a year.
The data released on Friday, which is produced yearly by Inpe’s Prodes satellite monitoring programme, is measured from August to July as there is less cloud cover in the middle of the year to obscure deforestation on satellite images.
“The figures released today are a historic achievement,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary at climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima, adding they show the world that “with political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.”
Lula took office in 2023 pledging to end deforestation by 2030, after it soared to its highest level in 15 years during the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula will face Flavio Bolsonaro, in a presidential election runoff on October 25th, after the younger Bolsonaro performed better than expected in the first round.
The senator pledged in his manifesto to strengthen environmental oversight in the Amazon, prioritising areas under the greatest pressure from deforestation and wildfires. He said law enforcement would focus on organised crime rather than on extractive workers and small farmers.
However, the younger Bolsonaro has followed his father’s example in courting support from predatory landowners in the Amazon and other extractivist interests while ignoring the climate crisis in his manifesto.
Former environment minister Marina Silva has warned that Flávio Bolsonaro will try to finish his father’s “perverse project” to destroy the Amazon.
The 2019-23 term of Jair Bolsonaro saw a 59.5 per cent increase in Amazon deforestation, roughly equivalent to destroying more than a million trees a day, through cuts to forest protection agencies, reduced implementation of penalties for environmental crimes and verbal encouragement for illegal miners, loggers and land grabbers.
– Reuters, additional reporting: Guardian
