Brazil's Amazon deforestation falls to its lowest recorded level
Brazil's Amazon lost 3,335 square kilometres of forest from August 2025 through July 2026, the lowest annual total since records began in 1988, according to official satellite data. [4][5] Clearance was about 42 percent lower than a year earlier and below the previous record low of 4,571 square kilometres in 2011-12. [4] AFP attributes the decline to greater monitoring and stiffer penalties for illegal logging, while President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated his goal of zero illegal deforestation by 2030. [4]
The figures show a substantial reduction in annual forest loss rather than simply a new pledge: deforestation has fallen every year since 2022 and is down 71.2 percent over four years. [4] The distinction still matters between reducing total clearance and meeting Lula's narrower commitment to end illegal deforestation. [4]
Key insights
- The new annual total is 1,236 square kilometres below the previous record low of 4,571 square kilometres. [4]
- The Prodes satellite programme measures August through July because cloud cover is lower around mid-year; this is not a calendar-year total. [4]
- The Cerrado also recorded a decline: clearance fell about 24 percent to 5,517 square kilometres, its lowest recorded level since 2001. [4]
- The release comes days before a presidential run-off, giving the environmental results an immediate political context as well as a conservation significance. [4]