(Brasilia) The Brazilian government announced Thursday a 22.3% drop in one year in deforestation in the Amazon, a best result in four years, but drought and fires threaten the largest tropical forest in the world.
According to the PRODES deforestation monitoring system, from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 9,001 square kilometers of primitive forest were destroyed between August 2022 and July 2023. A drop of 22.3% compared to the period August 2021-July 2022 (11,594 km2).
A coalition of environmental groups welcomed the findings, which “put the country on track to meet the climate goal.”
This is the best observation observed by the INPE since 2019, the starting point of an outbreak of logging in the Amazon forest which reached a peak of 13,038 km2 destroyed between August 2020 and July 2021, unheard of in 15 years.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to reduce deforestation in Brazil to zero by 2030 by reversing the environmental policies of his far-right climate change-skeptical predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). .
At a press conference to present the findings, Environment Minister Marina Silva said the Amazon had been the target of a “profusion of crimes” in recent years “after a complete dismantling of the structure of environmental governance”.
According to the Brazilian government, reducing deforestation between August 2022 and July 2023 avoided the emission of 133 million tonnes of CO2or 7.5% of the total issued by the country.
Mariana Napolitano, executive director of WWF-Brazil, welcomes this “significant reduction”, but warned of the “very high level of degradation” in the Amazon, which covers 59% of Brazilian territory.
“We are seeing a scenario of extreme fires in a tropical forest that does not normally burn spontaneously,” she told AFP.
According to the WWF, the Amazon recorded its worst October in 15 years, with 22,000 fires starting, an increase of 59% compared to the same month last year.
The north and northeast of Brazil are suffering from a severe drought that has reduced river flows to historically low levels. And the situation is expected to worsen in the coming months, due to the “high probability” of below-average precipitation and temperatures “higher than historical values”, said the National Center for Disaster Monitoring and Warning natural resources (CEMADEN) in a recent report.