The Brazilian Amazon recorded its lowest yearly deforestation rate in nearly a decade, as announced by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government on Wednesday, in line with his commitment to curb forest destruction.

According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation dropped by 30.6% in the year beginning August 2023. During this period, 6,288 square kilometers (2,427 square miles) of the forest were lost, which INPE Director Gilvan Oliveira highlighted as "the lowest result in the last nine years."

Over the past century, approximately 20% of the Amazon rainforest, which covers almost 40% of South America, has been cleared due to agriculture, cattle ranching, logging, mining, and urban expansion. Scientists caution that continued deforestation could push the Amazon to a tipping point where it would release more carbon than it absorbs, further accelerating climate change.

Lula has pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 but faces significant challenges from various vested interests.

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In addition to the Amazon, deforestation in the Cerrado—the world's most biodiverse savanna in central Brazil—decreased by 25.7%, amounting to 8,174 square kilometers of forest lost, INPE reported. Both biomes recently suffered from historic droughts and subsequent wildfires.

Mariana Napolitano, strategy director at the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, acknowledged the report as "good news" but emphasized the need for more action. She stressed the importance of reforesting areas that had been destroyed, particularly in the Amazon, which is nearing "the point of no return" and losing its ability to regenerate.

Environment Minister Marina Silva welcomed the "significant drop" in deforestation as a positive step toward Brazil’s efforts to cut carbon emissions, just ahead of the COP29 UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. She emphasized that "this reduction is the result of a new understanding that we are making in state politics...in the context that the problem of climate change is already an overwhelming reality in Brazil."

Environmental group Climate Observatory praised the figures as a "triumph for the country and a victory for Lula," contrasting them with the drastic rise in deforestation under former President Jair Bolsonaro, whose term saw Amazon deforestation surge by 75% compared to the previous decade’s average.