{"id":931349,"date":"2026-10-17T10:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931349\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T10:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:24:16","slug":"brazils-amazon-deforestation-hits-lowest-level-on-record-climate-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931349\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s Amazon deforestation hits lowest level on record | Climate News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data show a 42 percent drop in forest clearance from a year earlier, giving Lula a boost before the election run-off.<\/p>\n

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Published On 17 Oct 202617 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

Deforestation in Brazil\u2019s Amazon rainforest has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1988, according to official figures that give a boost to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva days before a presidential run-off.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s space research agency, Inpe, said on Friday that 3,335 square kilometres (1,288 square miles) of forest were cleared in the 12 months through July, about 42 percent less than the year before.<\/p>\n

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The previous record low was 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in 2011-12, while annual losses peaked at nearly 30,000 sq km (nearly 11,600 sq miles) in the mid-1990s, according to Inpe\u2019s Prodes satellite programme, which measures from August to July because cloud cover is lower in mid-year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an absolutely stratospheric drop\u2026it\u2019s like a dream,\u201d Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco said at a news conference in Brasilia.<\/p>\n

Marcio Astrini of the climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima called the figures \u201ca historic achievement\u201d and said they show that \u201cwith political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n

President Lula wrote on X: \u201cOur goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lula took office in 2023 pledging to end illegal deforestation<\/a> by 2030, after clearing soared to a 15-year high under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. The Amazon lost about 11,600 sq km (about 4,480 sq miles) a year on average during Bolsonaro\u2019s 2019-2022 term, almost 60 percent more than in the previous four years.<\/p>\n

Deforestation has fallen every year since 2022 and is down 71.2 percent over four years. The AFP news agency attributes the drop to greater monitoring and stiffer penalties for illegal logging.<\/p>\n

Lula faces Bolsonaro\u2019s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in the election run-off on October 25, with polls showing them neck and neck.<\/p>\n

Flavio pledged in his manifesto to strengthen environmental oversight in the Amazon, focus enforcement on organised crime rather than extractive workers and small farmers, and end \u201cillegal deforestation\u201d by 2029.<\/p>\n

He has also praised his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for coup plotting, for opposing what he calls a \u201cradical environmental agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deforestation in the Cerrado savanna, south of the Amazon, also fell by about 24 percent, to 5,517 sq km (2,130 sq miles), the lowest since records began in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Data show a 42 percent drop in forest clearance from a year earlier, giving Lula a boost before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,11308,6045,6485,75,2186,44,84,128,2261],"class_list":["post-931349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brazil","tag-climate","tag-elections","tag-environment","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}