BRASILIA – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has fallen for the fourth straight year, the government said Thursday, a boost for the country just days before it hosts UN climate talks.
Brazil is home to the largest share of the vast rain forest, which spans nine countries and is considered crucial in the fight against climate change.
The National Institute for Space Research which tracks forest cover by satellite, said that an area almost four times the size of Greater London had been destroyed between August 2024 and July 2025.
This was 11 percent less than the previous year and represented the lowest figures since 2014.
Claudio Almeida, a coordinator at INPE, said the loss of 5,796 square kilometers (2,238 square miles) of native vegetation represented “the fourth consecutive year of a reduction” in deforestation. AFP
Forest loss also slowed 11 percent in the Cerrado, a vast region of tropical savannah in central Brazil.
The Amazon rain forest stores vast amounts of carbon, which becomes carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas that is a key driver of climate change — when large quantities of trees and soil are burned.
“When we achieve a good result, we have to move on to the next challenge. We cannot rest on our laurels. Our challenge is to reduce deforestation to zero by 2030,” Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told a press conference.
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set zero deforestation as a goal for his government when he returned to power in 2023 for a third term. AFP
