Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was halved last year, data released Friday showed, as the government of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva stepped up environmental policing to combat the growing destruction.
But the news was far less bright from the critical Cerrado savanna below the rainforest, where clearcutting set a new annual record last year, increasing 43 percent by 2022, according to the national space agency’s DETER monitoring program.
Satellite tracking found 5,152 square kilometers (nearly 2,000 square miles) of forest cover destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon last year, down 50 percent by 2022.
That still represented a loss 29 times the size of Washington in Brazil’s share of the world’s largest rainforest, whose carbon-absorbing trees play a vital role in mitigating climate change.
Meanwhile, the Cerrado, a biodiversity hotspot whose ecosystems are inextricably linked to the Amazon, lost more than 7,800 square kilometers of native vegetation last year, the most since monitoring began in 2018.
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“We saw some major wins for the environment in 2023. The significant reduction in deforestation in the Amazon was a highlight,” said Mariana Napolitano of the environmental group WWF-Brasil.
“But unfortunately we’re not seeing the same trend in the Cerrado… That’s hurting the biome and the incredibly important ecosystem services it provides. And we saw the impact at the end of the year, with extremely high temperatures.”
Environmental groups have accused the Lula government of turning a blind eye to the destruction of the lesser-known Cerrado to appease the powerful agribusiness lobby.
Figures for both the Amazon and the Cerrado were updated through December 29.
Combined, the total area leveled in the two regions was 12,980 square kilometers in 2023, down 18 percent from 2022.
After beating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a divisive election in 2022, veteran leftist Lula returned to office on January 1, 2023, promising that “Brazil is back” as a partner in the fight against climate change.
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Agribusiness ally Bolsonaro (2019-2022) had drawn international criticism for presiding over a 75 percent increase in average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon compared to the previous decade.
Experts say the destruction in both the Amazon and the Cerrado is largely due to agriculture and cattle ranching in Brazil, the world’s top exporter of soybeans and beef.
Source: AFP