After 15 months of decline, deforestation in Brazil’s region of the Amazon rainforest is again on the rise, according to preliminary data from the country’s Environment Ministry and Science Ministry cited by Reuters.
In July, the ministry registered 666 square kilometres of cleared forest in the Brazilian Amazon – up from 500 square kilometres registered a year prior. Sixty percent of the 6.7 million-square-kilometre forest, considered a vital carbon sink for the earth, is located within Brazil.
Brazil’s vice minister for environment João Capobianco said a number of factors were behind the rise, including severe drought in the region, an ongoing environmental workers’ strike (they are demanding better pay and working conditions) and upcoming municipal elections, which tend to correlate with increased destruction.
[See more: Lula hopes to reverse the deforestation that took place under his predecessor]
This was the first increase in deforestation Brazil had seen since March 2023, shortly after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office. Even with the recent spike, deforestation levels are still far lower under Lula than his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Capobianco, the period from August 2023 to July 2024 saw a year-on-year decrease of 46 percent in deforestation – “the largest proportional drop ever recorded for the period” since tracking began in 2016.
Lula, who has pledged to end deforestation by 2030, announced a major multi-country investment scheme to help police the rainforest earlier in the year. Bringing together the eight South American countries that share the Amazon, along with organisations like Interpol, Ameripol and Europol, the new Brazilian-based Center for International Police Cooperation will focus on sharing intelligence and cracking down on a myriad of transnational crimes – including illegal logging.
