A little respite. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was nearly three times lower last month than in July 2022, according to official data released Thursday by the Lula government. This decline is all the more significant since July, in the heart of the dry season, is usually one of the worst months of the year in terms of destruction of the largest tropical forest on the planet.
Satellite data from the Deter system of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show 500 km2 of deforested in the Amazon, the lowest since 2017. This is a drop of 66% compared to the 1,487 km2 of July 2022, the last year of the presidency of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
His leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had previously governed the country from 2003 to 2010, began his third term in January by promising to make the preservation of the Amazon a priority and to do everything possible to eradicate illegal deforestation by 2030.
"Those who commit environmental crimes are no longer certain to go unpunished"
Marina Silva, Minister of Environment of Brazil
"We have entered a virtuous circle, those who commit environmental crimes are no longer certain to go unpunished, which they do twice before taking action," said Environment Minister Marina Silva. Taking into account the first seven months of Lula's government, deforestation has declined by 42.5% compared to the same period last year, under President Bolsonaro.
And over the reference period from August to July, favored by specialists for a one-year analysis starting at the pivotal moment of the dry season, the decrease is 7% compared to the previous twelve months. "The decline in deforestation in the Amazon in July is an important sign that the situation is back under control," said Mariana Napolitano of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Brazil office.
The figures, however, are much more worrying for the Cerrado, the tropical savannah very rich in biodiversity located south of the Amazon. With 612 km2 deforested last month, the increase is 26% compared to July 2022. Some experts fear that the concentration of efforts on the Amazon could have the effect of transferring environmental crimes to the Cerrado, where deforestation over the last twelve months has reached 6,359 km2, the highest since 2017.