BRASÍLIA — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell 41.8% in the year to July 2026, to 3,335 square kilometers — the lowest since satellite records began in 1988 — government data showed, BBC News and The Guardian reported.
The figure from the Prodes satellite series, compiled by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, beats the previous record low by 1,236 square kilometers, roughly the size of Rio de Janeiro. Clearing in the Cerrado savanna fell 23.8% to 5,516 square kilometers, its lowest since 2001.
Since 2022, the year before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, the Amazon deforestation rate has slowed by 71.2%, The Guardian said. Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco called the decline “absolutely stratospheric.” Lula wrote on X: “Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030.”
The news lands ahead of an October 25 run-off between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, under whom Amazon deforestation rose 59.5%. Polls suggest a close race, the BBC reported.
“The country will decide whether we move toward the end of deforestation or toward the end of the forest,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory.
Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, DW
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