Satellite data in the first monthly figures under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has shown that deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell in January from a year earlier.
According to preliminary satellite data collected by Inpe, the government’s space research agency, 167 square km (64 square miles) cleared in the region last month, down 61% from January 2022, the worst for the month in the eight-year series.
Brazilian environmental agents had in mid-January launched their first anti-logging raids under Lula who vowed to end destruction in the Amazon after it had surged under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Although January data can be especially noisy given heavy clouds over the rainforest early in the year, deforestation in January was also below the historical average of 196 square km for the month since 2016.
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“It is positive to see such a relevant drop in January. However, it is still too early to talk about a trend reversal, as part of this drop may be related to greater cloud cover,” WWF-Brasil conservation specialist Daniel Silva was quoted as saying, noting the January data represented the first drop from a year earlier in five months.
These fresh figures were coming at the back of an exclusive report by an online news agency on Thursday that the United States might make its first contribution to the Amazon Fund, a multilateral fund aimed at fighting Amazon deforestation, with a possible announcement during President Joe Biden’s meeting with Lula at the White House on Friday.
Supported mainly by Norway and Germany, the Brazilian-administered Amazon Fund was reactivated by Environment Minister Marina Silva on her first day in office after being frozen since 2019 under Bolsonaro, ten years after its launch in 2009.
Although the data shows Lula has started making good his promise of protecting the Amazon, experts and staff at the environmental agency Ibama are of the opinion it may take years for Lula to deliver on conservation targets after Bolsonaro cut funding and staff at key agencies.
The Brazilian government is also fighting wildcat mining on Yanomami land in the Amazon, its largest indigenous reservation, amid a humanitarian crisis blamed on illegal gold miners.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
