August 2023
Deforestation in the Amazon forest has dropped more than 60 percent compared to July last year. So says Brazil's Environment Minister in the British newspaper The Guardian.
A year ago things were still going fast: under the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation reached unprecedented levels. But the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken a different tack: it has cracked down on land grabs and illegal mining, and has demarcated new indigenous territories and nature reserves.
With success, says Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva: deforestation has decreased by more than 60 percent. Exact figures would be published in the coming days.
Reference(s).. IPS - Image by Rosina Kaiser via Pixabay
Silva made the statements ahead of a regional summit on deforestation to be held next week in Belém, Brazil. Countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela will attend.
The countries there are looking for ways to protect the rainforest not only from mining, logging and cattle ranching, but also from the impact of climate change and forest degradation. Indeed, of the Amazon forest standing today, a third has already been degraded by human activities and drought, a study in the journal Science showed earlier this year.