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The noise of the chainsaws begins to give a truce in Brazil. Deforestation fell 32.4% in the country last year compared to 2023. It is the second consecutive year of decrease and the largest since six years ago the mapbiomas records began, an entity that brings together NGOs, universities and technology startups. The satellite images show that last year Brazil lost 1.2 million hectares of native vegetation, compared to 1.8 million of the previous year. In the Amazon, the reduction was 17%.
The largest tropical jungle in the world usually monopolizes all headlines, but Brazilian environmentalists often complain that other less media biomes, such as closed (the tropical savanna) are even more punished and do not generate the same international shock. In recent years, deforestation in the jungle had fallen, but in return it had grinding strongly in the ‘closed’, something that has now been corrected. Last year the destruction fell into all the biomes and regions of the country: from the leafy jungles of the North to the South Pampas.
The data is a boost to the work of the Minister of Environment and Climate, Marina Silva, the veteran activist who already in the early 2000s managed to stop deforestation in the first mandate of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. For the Mapbiomas coordinator, Tasso Azevedo, the fall is explained by a mixture of factors: the Plan to Combate the Deforestation in the Amazon was rescued that former President Bolsonaro had kept in a drawer, and also created new plans for the rest of biomes, which historically were given less attention.
Controls in the field by environmental agents have also increased. If in 2019 (the first year with Bolsonaro in power) just 5% of the deforest territory had been watched in some way, with fines, embargoes or other measures, last year the percentage went to 54%. In addition, to the surprise of many, the control of environmental crimes has advanced not only in federal spheres, but also among the governors of the states, in general conservatives and more reluctant to environmental policies. There are also less known factors, such as a tool that allows banks to access the history of rural properties before granting credits. They began by adding the two main state banks, but since last year practically all financial entities operating in Brazil check that there is no irregularity, which raises pressure on landowners.
Upon returning to the government two years ago, Lula marked the ambitious goal of ending deforestation (legal and illegal) as late in 2030, something that is viable for Azevedo if the current rhythm is maintained. “It is perfectly possible (..) Everything depends on what happens with the changes of government, but if the policies that work, yes,” he says, he says in a telephone conversation alluding to the presidential elections of 2026.
The situation is improving, but one like this, Brazil remains the country that most deforest in the world, surpassing the democratic republic of the Congo and Indonesia. In the last six years, 9.8 million hectares of native vegetation were lost, an area similar to Andalusia Oa Guatemala. Despite last year’s reduction, more than 3,400 soccer fields of a virgin nature disappeared every day. In the Amazon, this is equivalent to cutting seven trees per second.
Although there is much to be done, Lula will surely take breast of the reduction of deforestation rates at the next climate summit, the Cop30, which will take place precisely in the Amazon heart, in the city of Belém do Paraá, in November. Despite the expected difficulties in advancing in climatic commitments in an increasingly fragmented world and, with the US, Brazil will cling to these data to argue before the rich countries that the homework is doing, since deforestation is its main factor of greenhouse gas emissions. Another song is fossil fuels. Lula has already made it clear that he does not plan to give up so quickly to exploit oil deposits.
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