Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to office promising to end unlawful forest clearance by ranchers and illegal miners. (EPA Images pic)BRASILIA: Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to figures released Friday, in welcome news for leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva days before a presidential runoff.
Between August 2025 and July 2026, 3,335 square kilometers of forest were cleared, a decline of nearly 42% over the previous year and the lowest level since records began in 1988, official statistics showed.
"It's an absolutely stratospheric drop...it's like a dream," environment minister Joao Paulo Capobianco told a press conference in the capital Brasilia.
