Amazon deforestation drops 33.6% in first semester of 2023

Friday, July 7th 2023 - 10:38 UTC

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“Deforestation was increasing exponentially but now there is a steady downward trend in deforestation in the Amazon,” Minister Silva said

Brazil's Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter), of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), reported Thursday that deforestation in the Amazon in the first semester of 2023 had decreased by 33.6 % year on year and 41 % in the last 12 months.

The agency belonging to the Environment Ministry (MMA) also said that the Brazilian Amazon lost 2,649 square kilometers of vegetation cover between January and June, compared to 3,988 km2 in the first six months of 2022.

One of the actions identified as key to safeguarding the Amazon rainforest is the resumption of environmental inspection. Compared to the first half of 2022, the first six months of 2023 saw a 348 percent increase in the number of assessments, which reached 1,141.

Environment Minister Marina Silva said “Deforestation was increasing exponentially but now there is a steady downward trend in deforestation in the Amazon.”

“President Lula's decision to assume as government policy the idea that environmental policy is transversal is something intangible, but very powerful. Of the ten decrees issued on the first day of government, five were in the environmental area. We could not stand still. With the tools we had, we were doing the job,” she added.

The state of Amazonas, Brazil's largest, had a 55.2% reduction, reversing the previous trend of high rates, while Mato Grosso registered the largest increase, 34%, with a total loss of 905 km2. Deter also stated that in the Cerrado, the world's largest savannah, there was a 21% increase in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.

The region near the triple border among the States of Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia -known by the acronym Amacro- accounted for a quarter of all deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year.

In total, 26 municipalities concentrate about 50 percent of the alerts in this period. Bahia is the state with the record number of municipalities that have registered alerts (10), followed by Tocantins (5), Maranhão (5), and Piauí (4).