Preliminary official data has shown that deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest increased by 14% in March compared to a year earlier, highlighting the continuing challenges for the new leftist government.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on January 1, pledging to end deforestation after years of a significant increase in deforestation under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who scaled back environmental protection efforts in the Amazon.
“This increase in numbers reveals that the Amazon still suffers from a huge lack of governance and that the new government needs to act urgently to rebuild its environmental crime enforcement capacity, which had been totally destroyed by the previous government,” said Marcio Astrini, head of local environmental group Climate Observatory.
Data from the space research agency Inpe showed that 356 square kilometers (137 square miles) were logged in Brazil’s Amazon last month alone.
The latest figures present a mixed picture in the government’s fight against deforestation, with an 11% decrease in destruction from January to March, reaching 845 square kilometers (326 square miles) compared to a year earlier.
Brazil officially measures annual deforestation from August through July to limit the influence of cloud cover that obscures satellite images of destruction during the rainy months. For the first eight months of that period, from August 2022 to March 2023, deforestation is up 39% year-on-year.
“There are just four months left to close the final deforestation figures. This means that a decrease in deforestation rates in the Amazon by 2023 is unlikely. In fact, it is more likely to increase,” says Astrini.
In late February, in Brasilia, US climate envoy John Kerry said the world cannot meet its climate goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius unless it protects the Amazon rainforest.
Washington announced earlier this year that it intended to contribute to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, which supports conservation projects in the rainforest region.
Norway also pledged last month to support Brazil’s efforts to attract additional donor countries to the Amazon Fund.