Brazil records lowest Amazon deforestation since 1988

Brazil recorded its lowest annual Amazon deforestation since satellite records began in 1988, with 3,335 square kilometres cleared in the 12 months through July 2026, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research, known as INPE. The total was about 42% below the preceding year’s figure, the agency’s PRODES satellite monitoring program showed. The annual measurement period runs from August through July, when lower cloud cover makes it easier to observe forest loss. The result marks the lowest level in the series, which began in 1988. Deforestation in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna region, also fell, reaching about 5,517 square kilometres in the same annual period, the lowest figure since that series began in 2001. The decrease there was about 24% from the previous period. The Amazon decline follows a wider downward trend during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s current administration. INPE data show deforestation has fallen about 71% since 2022, the year before Lula took office. The annual Amazon total had reached substantially higher levels during the 2019-2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. Lula’s government restored a federal action plan aimed at...