Deforestation in the Amazon falls 61% in the first month of the Lula government

Equivalent to more than 22 thousand football fields, the deforested area showed a drop compared to 430 km2 in January 2022, during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro, indicates INPE.

During the Bolsonaro administration, an ally of climate change-denying agribusiness, the average annual deforestation in Amazon increased 75,5% compared to the previous decade.

The reduction in the devastated area could be a reflection of a “resumption of the environmental defense agenda”, said the environmental NGO WWF-Brazil in a statement, although it is still “too early to talk about a reversal of the trend”.

“It is necessary to urgently restructure the Action Plans for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Fires. It is important that Brazil retome its role of environmental leadership on the international stage”, highlighted Frederico Machado, conservation specialist at WWF-Brazil, who called the policies of recent years “anti-environmental” and “criminal”.

Experts assure that deforestation is directly related to the advance of large farms and land grabbers, who destroy the forest to raise livestock and plantations.

President Lula, 77 years old, prometo resume environmental protection programs, fight to meet the goal of zero illegal deforestation by 2030 and ensure that Brazil stops being a “pariah” on climate issues.

Lula appointed Marina Silva to the Ministry of the Environment, a renowned environmentalist who was in charge of this department between 2003 and 2008, when Brazil managed to significantly reduce deforestation.

The minister acknowledged in an interview with AFP that Brazil's environmental reality is “much worse” than expected.

The country is in contact with some Western powers, such as France, so that they can help with resources and add efforts to the Amazon Fund, whose main donors are Norway and Germany.

United Kingdom is considering joining the Amazon Fund, says British minister

The British environment minister, Therese Coffey, attended Lula's inauguration in Brasília and showed interest in increasing donations for the preservation of the main Brazilian biome, Reuters reported.

In addition to the fight against deforestation, Lula's government is tackling illegal mining with an operation that aims to expel invaders from Yanomami lands, the country's largest indigenous reserve, on the border with Venezuela.

(To AFP)

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