{"id":4109,"date":"2026-10-17T08:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:59:12","slug":"brazil-sees-record-fall-in-amazon-deforestation-as-key-election-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=4109","title":{"rendered":"Brazil sees record fall in Amazon deforestation as key election looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brazil’s government says deforestation rates in the country’s Amazon and savanna regions have fallen to record lows ahead of a presidential election run-off in which the rainforest’s future is a key issue.<\/p>\n

Left-wing President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, when he assumed office three years ago, pledged to end deforestation by 2030 in the Amazon. It had surged under his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

Lula will face Bolsonaro’s son Flavio in the run-off on 25 October, with polls suggesting a neck-and-neck race. Flavio is expected to continue his father’s policies if he wins, though he has pledged to fight organised crime in the Amazon.<\/p>\n

Satellite data shows that in the year to July 2026, the deforestation rate fell by 41.8% in the Amazon – the biggest drop since records began in 1988. The fall in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna region, was 23.8%.<\/p>\n

The Amazon rainforest – the world’s largest – is a crucial buffer in the global fight against climate change and 60% of it is located in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Jair Bolsonaro promoted mining in indigenous lands in the Amazon and forest clearances soared at the same time as resources to protect the forest were cut.<\/p>\n

During Bolsonaro’s presidency from 2019 to 2022, the Amazon lost nearly 60% more in forest lands compared to the previous four years, news agency AFP reported, citing official data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lula reversed his policies and oversaw deforestation rates drop to a six-year low during his first year in office. Lula tightened up environmental monitoring and penalties for illegal logging.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030,” he said in a post on X on Friday.<\/p>\n

Tropical rainforests like the Amazon are home to millions of species. In a healthy state, they absorb vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide, helping to keep the Earth cool.<\/p>\n

But they have come under increasing pressure from decades of deliberate land clearance for agriculture and logging, as well as climate change, which scientists warn can create conditions for wildfires.<\/p>\n

Brazil’s Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco described the decline in Amazon deforestation as “absolutely stratospheric”.<\/p>\n

It was an “historic achievement” for Brazil, said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary at climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima.<\/p>\n

It showed that “with political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions”, Astrini said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s government says deforestation rates in the country’s Amazon and savanna regions have fallen to record lows ahead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brazil"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4111,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions\/4111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}