By Mongabay.com
Month over month, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon declined for the 13th consecutive month as forest clearing in Earth’s largest rainforest fell to the lowest level in five years. This decrease occurred despite a historic drought in the region, according to data published on Friday by Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE.
In April, the area of forest loss registered by INPE’s deforestation alert system was 174 square kilometers, a 47% drop compared to last April. Over the past 12 months, deforestation totaled 4,661 square kilometers, marking a 51% decrease compared to the previous year.
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Accumulated deforestation for Jan 1-Apr 30 since 2009 according to INPE’s DETER alert system.
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12-month- moving average data for deforestation alert data from Imazon’s SAD system and INPE’s DETER system. Imazon is a Brazilian NGO that independently monitors deforestation.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which comprises nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, has declined rapidly since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023. President Lula has made it a priority to curb deforestation in the region by reinstating conservation programs, rebuilding and empowering environmental agencies, rallying international support for forest protection, and showing support for Indigenous rights. The Lula administration has also reimplemented programs that offer economic incentives for maintaining forest cover and called for the establishment of a novel alliance of tropical rainforest nations to seek international finance for conservation and restoration.
Falling deforestation has come even as a severe drought has affected vast swathes of the northern Amazon. The state of Roraima has seen record fires in recent months.
Header image: Rainbow over the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler
This article was originally published on Mongabay
