RIO DE JANEIRO: Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest increased in July for the first time in 15 months, according to official data released on Wednesday.
An area of 666 square kilometers (250 sq mi) was destroyed in the Amazon last month, a 33 percent increase from the 500 square kilometers lost in July 2023.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to halt illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. The practice worsened dramatically under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Among the factors that contributed to the increase in July, according to the government, was a strike by public employees at the environmental agency IBAMA.
Moreover, “in July last year, the decline (of deforestation) was very high,” Joao Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, said during a press conference explaining this July’s poor results.
Over the past 12 months, deforestation has decreased by 45.7 percent compared to the previous period.
“Over the last year, the reduction has been extremely significant,” Capobianco said.
While deforestation destroyed 7,952 square kilometers between August 2022 and July 2023, it destroyed only 4,315 square kilometers during the same period in 2023–2024.
Deforestation is strongly associated with agricultural expansion and illegal mining.
The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, covers nearly 40 percent of South America. In the past century, about 20 percent of its area has been lost to deforestation due to the development of agriculture and cattle ranching, logging and mining, and urban sprawl. Tropical forests absorb carbon and are a vital ally in the fight against climate change, but they are also the most ravaged by deforestation.
