Brazil cuts Amazon deforestation rate by 22 percent

Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) revealed on Wednesday consolidated data showing a 21.8 percent decrease in Amazon deforestation from August 2022 to July 2023. Deforestation in the period reached 9,064 square kilometers, an area about 40 percent larger than the state of Delaware.

The reduction disclosed today is similar to the 22.3 percent estimate announced back in November for the same period.

Inpe operates two satellite programs that monitor deforestation, named Prodes and Deter. Prodes produces annual high-precision deforestation data with higher-quality imagery, while Deter provides daily alerts to support environmental and police agencies on the ground. 

Deter data also disclosed today showed that deforestation in the Amazon continued to decrease, with a 55 percent reduction in the period from August 2023 to April 2024 compared to the previous 12 months. This was the lowest deforestation rate for the period in the last ten years.

Deforestation also decreased 9.2 percent in the two states comprising the Pantanal wetlands biome.

Conversely, in today’s press conference, Inpe’s program coordinator Cláudio Almeida also showed Deter data indicating a 27 percent increase in deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna from August 2023 to April 2024 compared to the previous 12-month period.

Environment Minister Marina Silva said the result brings Brazil closer to its zero-deforestation goal by 2030, and that “climate is our greatest asset.”

“We want to reach equally positive results for the Cerrado,” she added.

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