Environment

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Falls

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 68 per cent last month compared to April 2022. This is the first significant drop since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office at the start of this year.

Lula, as the left-leaning President is known, campaigned on transforming Brazil into a ‘green superpower’. One of his promises was to combat illegal deforestation, which rose to a 15-year high under former right wing President Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation typically shoots up between July and September, meaning it is too early to determine if this downwards trend will continue.

President Lula has committed to ending all illegal logging by 2030. A Bolsonaro measure that encouraged illegal mining on protected Indigenous lands has been revoked, and a military campaign has been launched to eject illegal miners. Some Indigenous territories have been demarcated.

Yet several major infrastructure projects in the Amazon threaten to derail this progress. These include the major Ferrograo railway project to transport grains, and the restoration of an abandoned highway that runs through protected parts of the rainforest. The renewal of a licence for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and a potential licence for an oil drilling project near the mouth of the Amazon River are also being considered by Ibama.