Deforestation in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon rainforest declined to a five-year low, the New York Times reported.
The country’s National Institute of Space Research announced last week that 3,500 square miles of forestry were cut between August 2022 and July 2023, a 22.3% decline compared with the same period one year earlier.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made curbing deforestation a leading issue for his administration, which took over in January. Previous President Jair Bolsonaro oversaw a 15-year high for deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon.
As deforestation falls in Brazil, Colombia also reported that its portion of the Amazon saw a 70% decline in forest clearing in the first nine months of 2023 compared with the same period last year, according to Reuters. As with Brazil, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro is reversing the policies of the prior administration.
