SAO PAULO — Annual deforestation across Brazil’s Amazon rainforest dropped to the lowest level since official monitoring began in 1988, government officials announced Friday, delivering a major environmental milestone just days before a pivotal presidential election.
Satellite figures released by the National Institute for Space Research, known as Inpe, showed that 3,335 square kilometers (about 1,288 square miles) of forest were cleared between August 2025 and July 2026. The figure marked a 41.8 percent drop compared with the preceding 12-month period and broke the previous historic low of 4,571 square kilometers set in the 2011-2012 monitoring cycle, the Associated Press reported.
The announcement represents a sharp reversal from trends under former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose 2019 to 2022 administration saw deforestation climb nearly 60 percent. Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, forest clearance in the biome has fallen 71.2 percent, according to space agency figures cited by The Guardian.
“It’s an absolutely stratospheric drop… it’s like a dream,” Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco said during a press conference in Brasília, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
Enforcement and Policy Shifts
Upon returning to the presidency for a third term, Lula revived the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon, a policy framework he first introduced in 2004 that had been halted by Bolsonaro. The strategy focuses on restoring satellite-directed penalties against unlawful clearing, denying credit to ranches and farms operating on illegally cleared land, and directing additional funding to municipalities that reduce woodland loss, the AP reported.
Forest clearance also plunged in the neighboring Cerrado savanna, dropping by roughly 24 percent to 5,516 square kilometers, representing the lowest annual figure recorded in that biome since 2001, according to government data.
Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Brazilian environmental network Observatório do Clima, described the data as a historic breakthrough that proves environmental protection does not hamper the broader economy.
“Agriculture has been setting production and export records while deforestation has fallen. Today’s figures disprove the false narrative that protecting the environment holds back Brazil’s development,” Astrini said, according to the AP.
Runoff Election Looms Over Conservation Efforts
The record drop comes as Brazil prepares for an Oct. 25 presidential runoff between Lula and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the former president. In the first round of voting on Oct. 4, the younger Bolsonaro secured 47 percent of the vote compared with 45 percent for Lula, setting up an exceedingly tight contest, according to media reports.
The candidates have offered contrasting visions for the biome, which absorbs vast amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Lula has committed to achieving zero net deforestation by 2030, reinforcing that stance Friday in a post on X where he affirmed the goal of halting all unlawful forest destruction within the decade, BBC News reported.
Flávio Bolsonaro has promised to eliminate illegal clearing by 2029 while focusing state resources on organized crime networks rather than small-scale farmers and extractors. However, conservationists have expressed concern over his calls to modernize environmental regulations, and his campaign has defended his father’s tenure, Al Jazeera reported. Jair Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence linked to an attempted coup.
Marina Silva, who previously served as environment minister under Lula before stepping down in April to seek a seat in Congress, cautioned that the preservation gains remain fragile. “Those who deny the problem exists will certainly do nothing to address it,” Silva said in a statement carried by the AP, arguing that a Bolsonaro victory would endanger existing conservation enforcement.
Beyond electoral politics, researchers warn that the Amazon faces compounding environmental strains. Forest degradation from timber harvesting, severe drought and fires now affects roughly 40 percent of the region, the AP reported. Although active fires sat near historic lows for much of 2026, fire counts tripled following the first round of voting earlier this month, prompting federal authorities to open investigations into whether blazes were intentionally ignited for political motives.
