Deforestation hits record low in Brazilian Amazon

Small boats move in front of an island where trees have fallen in the Bailique archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. The river and the sea push back and forth against each other with different strengths according to the season. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year plunged to its lowest level in a decade, according to official data released Friday, the latest decline under Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government.

The world’s largest tropical rainforest had 2,874 square kilometres cleared from August 2025 to July 2026, marking a nearly 37 per cent drop from the previous year, the National Institute for Space Research said.

The group began tracking deforestation via satellite starting in 2016.

Left-wing president Lula, who will seek re-election in October, has vowed to end illegal deforestation by 2030.

“The numbers indicate that, if we maintain the current pace, with the seriousness we’ve shown and by providing the necessary resources, we can achieve this,” Lula said as the new data was presented in Sao Paulo.

Deforestation surged in the Amazon under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, peaking at 12,500 square kilometres in 2022.

“In this country we take the climate issue very seriously, because we are not denialists. We are watching things happen,” Lula said Friday in reference to extreme climate events.

Lula faces the former president’s son, Flavio Bolsonaro, in the upcoming race. The veteran leftist is slightly ahead in the latest polls.

But environmentalists have criticized his support for a large-scale oil exploration project off the Amazon coast.