The data shows a 42 percent drop in deforestation compared to the previous year, giving Lula a boost ahead of the runoff election.
Published on October 17, 2026
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1988, according to official figures that give a boost to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva days before the second round of the presidential election.
Brazil’s space research agency, Inpe, said Friday that 3,335 square kilometers (1,288 square miles) of forest had been cleared in the 12 months to July, about 42 percent less than the previous year.
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The previous record was 4,571 km² (1,765 square miles) in 2011-2012, while annual losses peaked at almost 30,000 km² (nearly 11,600 square miles) in the mid-1990s, according to Inpe’s Prodes satellite program, which measures from August to July because cloud cover is lower in the middle of the year.
“It’s an absolutely stratospheric drop… it’s like a dream,” Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco told a news conference in Brasilia.
Marcio Astrini, of the climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima, called the figures a “historic achievement” and said they show that “with political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.”
President Lula wrote on X: “Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030.”
Lula took office in 2023 pledging to end illegal deforestation by 2030, after it reached a 15-year high under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. The Amazon lost about 11,600 square kilometers (about 4,480 square miles) per year on average during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 term, almost 60% more than in the previous four years.
Deforestation has decreased every year since 2022 and is down 71.2% over four years. The AFP news agency attributes the decline to increased monitoring and tougher penalties for illegal logging.
Lula will face Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in the October 25 runoff election, with polls showing them neck and neck.
Flavio pledged in his manifesto to strengthen environmental monitoring in the Amazon, focus law enforcement on organized crime rather than extractive sector workers and small farmers, and end “illegal deforestation” by 2029.
He also praised his father, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence under house arrest for coup plotting, for his opposition to what he called a “radical environmental agenda.”
Deforestation in the Cerrado savannah in the southern Amazon also fell by about 24 percent, to 5,517 square kilometers (2,130 square miles), the lowest level since records began in 2001.
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