The devastated area in the world’s largest rainforest reached 666 square kilometers last month.
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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased in July for the first time in more than a year, according to official data released Wednesday, August 7, marking a setback for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The area devastated in the world’s largest rainforest reached 666 km2 last month, up 33% from the 500 km2 destroyed in July 2023.
The increase in deforestation in July means a halt to a continuous decline over the past 15 months. However, taking into account the past 12 months, deforestation has decreased by 45.7% compared to the previous period. Thus, while deforestation had destroyed 7,952 km2 between August 2022 and July 2023, over the period August 2023-July 2024 it reached 4,315 km2.
Returning to power in January 2023, Lula has promised to end illegal deforestation in Brazil by 2030, which had surged under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation is strongly linked to agricultural expansion and illegal mining. “In July last year the reduction [de la déforestation) avait été très élevée, avec un résultat très en dessous de la tendance historique“, a dit mercredi lors d’une conférence de presse Joao Paulo Capobianco, secrétaire exécutif du ministère de l’Environnement, pour expliquer le mauvais résultat de juillet dernier. “Sur l’année écoulée, la réduction est extrêmement importante”, a-t-il insisté.
