AFP, Brasilia

Brazilian Amazon deforestation fell 22.3 percent in the year through July, hitting a five-year low, officials said Thursday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government fights to curb destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest. Satellite monitoring found 9,001 square kilometres (3,475 square miles) of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2022 to July 2023, according to national space agency INPE’s annual deforestation tracking programme, PRODES. It was the first time the figure came in at less than 10,000 square kilometres since 2018, before the presidency of far-right ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who presided over a sharp increase in clear-cutting in the Amazon. Under Bolsonaro, there was “an explosion of crime, following a complete dismantling of the government’s environmental structures,” Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference. Since taking office on January 1, the Lula administration has dramatically increased anti-deforestation operations and fines for environmental crimes.