Amazon deforestation in Brazil hits record low

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell to 3,335 square kilometers between August 2025 and July 2026, official figures released Friday showed, the lowest level since records began in 1988.

The area cleared was nearly 42 percent lower than in the previous year. Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco called the drop "absolutely stratospheric" at a press conference in Brasilia.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who faces conservative senator Flavio Bolsonaro in an October 25 presidential runoff, repeated on X his goal of reaching zero illegal deforestation by 2030.

Brazil contains about 60 percent of the world's largest rainforest, which plays a major role in absorbing greenhouse gases. The official deforestation rate is measured by the Prodes satellite system, operated by the National Institute for Space Research.

Amazon deforestation has fallen steadily since 2022, with a cumulative drop of 71.2 percent over the four years since Lula was elected. Lula returned to office promising to end unlawful forest clearance by ranchers and illegal miners.

Official figures show the Amazon lost around 11,600 square kilometers of forest during Jair Bolsonaro's 2019-2022 presidency, almost 60 percent more than in the previous four years. Flavio Bolsonaro has praised his father's opposition to what he calls a "radical environmental agenda," while pledging to end illegal deforestation by 2029.

Official figures also showed deforestation in the Cerrado savanna south of the Amazon fell to its lowest level since records there began in 2001. From August 2025 to July 2026, 5,517 square kilometers of native vegetation were destroyed there, down almost 24 percent in a year.

Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society groups, called the figures a "historic victory."