Amazon deforestation in Brazil falls to a near 40-year low

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has fallen to its lowest level in almost 40 years. Destruction of another key Brazilian biome, the Cerrado savanna, has also declined, according to the INPE institute, which processes satellite observation data.

From August last year to July this year, 5,517 square kilometres of vegetation were destroyed in the Cerrado. That is 24 percent less than a year earlier and the lowest annual figure since records began in 2001.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised greater protection for the Amazon before his election in 2022. To that end, he reinstated measures against illegal logging that had been scrapped by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro favoured more active economic use of the forest, which often leads to clearing for agriculture and cattle farming.

Lula is running again in the current presidential election. Bolsonaro's son, Flávio, has also reached the runoff. Protecting the Amazon has featured less prominently in the campaign than it did four years ago. According to the latest polls, Bolsonaro holds a slight lead ahead of Sunday's vote on 25 October.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz