Deforestation is declining - global deforestation efforts are high now and efforts to revitalize the Amazon are already taking place

Almost six months into his second spell as president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has begun to rein in the rampant destruction of the Amazon that was let loose by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. But his efforts to save the rainforest could be scuppered by a right-wing Congress, experts say. The first significant reduction in forest clearing came in April, when Amazon deforestation fell 68 per cent compared with the same month last year. May saw a smaller drop of 10 per cent, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Overall, the first five months of the year have seen a 31 per cent drop in deforestation in comparison with those months in 2022. Between 2019 and 2022, Bolsonaro publicly encouraged development in the Amazon, watered down environmental protections and gutted ministries responsible for conserving the rainforest. During his presidency, the amount of Amazon forest lost increased 59.5 per cent on the previous four years. Since taking office in January, Lula has restored funding for environmental protection and reappointed officials in key positions. From January to May, the environment agency Ibama imposed commercial embargoes on 2255 farms on illegally deforested land and served 2 billion reals ($406 million) in fines for environmental crimes — up 160 per cent on the average yearly sanctions during Bolsonaro’s term. Deforestation alerts – which occur when satellites detect changes in forest cover – began to decline shortly after enforcement efforts were ramped up, says Suely Araújo at Brazil’s Climate Observatory. Earlier this month, Lula outlined a long-term plan to implement his pledge of ending illegal deforestation by 2030. He promised that intelligence agencies would do more to track down environmental crime and a new registry would be set up to monitor the management of forests that are most important to slowing climate change. Brazil has also rebuilt relationships with international partners and revived the Amazon Fund, which has received donations worth hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign governments. A committee in the Senate is currently working on a plan that would allow Brazil to profit from protecting tropical forests by selling carbon credits to other nations. “Lula’s plan to fight climate change could be the most ambitious in the world as it combines ways to combat deforestation while also providing livelihoods for those who clear forests,” says Erika Berenguer at the University of Oxford. Lula aims to take back half of the protected lands being illegally exploited for logging, farming, mining and other activities, but it will take time to dismantle the armed gangs who expanded their control of the rainforest under Bolsonaro, says Araújo. “The problem is, the situation with environmental crime in the Amazon is much more complex to face than the one that existed two decades ago,” she says.