Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66 percent in August compared to the same month last year. The government announced this on Tuesday. She claims that this result, which confirms last month’s figures, is a sign of the effectiveness of her environmental policy.
In July, the Institute for Space Research had already recorded a 66 percent decrease in deforestation. The results are all the more convincing because they were recorded during the dry season, when deforestation is generally highest.
Satellite data shows that 473.5 square kilometers were deforested between August 1 and August 25, compared to 1,661 square kilometers over the entire month a year earlier under Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. Under the radical right-wing president, deforestation in the Amazon increased 75 percent over the average in the previous decade.
Lula
His left-wing successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had already led the country from 2003 to 2010, began his third term in January by promising to make conservation of the Amazon a priority and to do everything possible to eradicate illegal deforestation by 2030.
“These results show the determination of the Lula government to break the cycle of neglect and decline of the previous government,” said Environment Minister Marina Silva after the results were announced.
“If we do not protect the forest and its inhabitants, we will condemn the world to a sharp increase in CO2 emissions and therefore to an acceleration of climate change,” she added at a ceremony to mark Amazon Day.
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