Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest on record as pivotal vote looms

A deforested area of the Amazon rainforest in Amazonas state. Photograph: Edmar Barros/APView image in fullscreenA deforested area of the Amazon rainforest in Amazonas state.

Fotografia: Edmar Barros/AP Floresta Amazônica Desmatamento na Amazônia brasileira cai para o menor nível registrado, enquanto voto decisivo se aproxima A derrubada de floresta atingiu o menor total desde o início dos registros em 1988, em vitória para Lula antes da segunda volta presidencial.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleDeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level since records began, new government data shows.

But whether this globally important success is maintained or reversed is on a knife edge ahead of a presidential election run-off on 25 October between two candidates with sharply different visions for the future of the rainforest and how that affects relations with the US under Donald Trump.

The incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, fell behind in the first round of voting despite an impressive record in slowing the destruction of the Amazon while also reducing poverty and food insecurity.

He is up against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro.

A série de dados do satélite Prodes, considerada a medida mais precisa de desmatamento, mostrou que a desmatamento na Amazônia caiu 41,8% no último ano, atingindo 3.

335 quilômetros quadrados, o menor valor desde o início dessas medições em 1988.

This beats the previous record low by 1,236 sq km, equivalent to an area the size of Rio de Janeiro.

Since 2022, the year before the start of the Lula administration, the deforestation rate has slowed by 71. 2%, according to the data collated by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.

Isso se deu em grande parte graças a medidas de fiscalização mais rigorosas e aos investimentos estatais em agências ambientais.

The Brazilian states with the worst records in 2026 were Pará, which registered 33. 9% of all Amazon deforestation in the year, Mato Grosso (25. 5%) and Amazonas (15.

No entanto, mesmo nesses locais as cifras caíram mais de 45% em relação ao ano anterior. O estado onde o problema piorou (aumentou 0,4%) foi Roraima, que é um bastião bolsonarista.

Outside the Amazon, the neighbouring biome of the Cerrado – an area of savannah – registered its lowest annual deforestation since 2001, at 5,516 sq km. This is significant as the Cerrado has long been treated as an area of environmental sacrifice, where soya and beef producers could clear more forest than they were allowed to do in the Amazon.

Over the past four years, Cerrado deforestation has fallen by 48. 4%.

View image in fullscreenDeforestation near a forest on the border between the Amazon and the Cerrado in Mato Grosso state. Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/ReutersThese spectacular results, which brought some conservationists to tears, stand in sharp contrast to the 2019-23 term of Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw a 59.

Aumento de 5% no desmatamento da Amazônia, equivalente a destruir mais de um milhão de árvores por dia, por cortes em agências de proteção florestal, redução na aplicação de penalidades por crimes ambientais e incentivo verbal a garimpeiros ilegais, madeireiros e ocupantes de terras.

Bolsonaro was then convicted for attempting a coup but his son has vowed to release his father and let him take any position in government that he chooses.

The younger Bolsonaro has followed his father’s example in courting support from predatory landowners in the Amazon and other extractivist interests while ignoring the climate crisis in his manifesto.

The former environment minister Marina Silva, who has arguably done more than anyone to defend the rainforest, has warned that Flávio Bolsonaro will try to finish his father’s “perverse project” to destroy the Amazon.

O contraste marcante entre os dois candidatos é evidente no mapa dos resultados eleitorais na Amazônia, onde Bolsonaro garantiu a maioria dos votos próximo a áreas de floresta degradada, minas, fazendas e monoculturas de soja, enquanto o apoio a Lula foi maior em grandes cidades ou em áreas de floresta onde a vegetação estava relativamente intacta.

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It is also evident in their very different relations to the US. Lula has warned that Trump is trying to colonise the country and capture its resources. He defends the Amazon as a sovereign asset for Brazil, an important home for Indigenous peoples and an essential element in global efforts to stabilise the climate.

The Bolsonaro family, by contrast, has close ties to the US. Flavio’s brother Eduardo has lived in Texas since last year and called upon the Trump administration to impose punitive tariffs on his own country.

Jair saudou a bandeira dos EUA e liderou cânticos de “USA, USA”. Se a família conquistar o poder, espera‑se que altere as prioridades comerciais do Brasil, especialmente no que diz respeito a minerais críticos, de China e Europa para os EUA.

The biggest difference, however, is likely to be the far right’s willingness to exploit natural resources in the Amazon and elsewhere in Brazil and then sell them to the highest bidder, regardless of environmental and social concerns.

Conservation groups said the new deforestation data showed how much was at stake in the presidential run-off.

Marcio Astrini, secretário executivo do Observatório do Clima, disse: “A cifra deixa claro que pôr fim à destruição das florestas no Brasil é totalmente possível.”.