For the first time in four years, less than 10,000 square kilometers of forest area have been cut down in the Brazilian Amazon region in one year. From August 2022 to July 2023, forest was lost over an area of around 9,000 square kilometers, according to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).
This corresponds to approximately half of the area of the federal state of Saxony – and a decrease of 22.3 percent compared to the same period last year (almost 11,600 square kilometers). It is also the lowest value since 2019.
Protecting the rainforest is important
The Brazilian Amazon region, which is considered a CO2 reservoir and plays an important role in the international fight against climate change, stretches across nine Brazilian states and is the size of Western Europe.
The left-wing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was sworn in as President of Brazil for the third time on January 1st, was not exactly considered an environmentalist in his previous terms of office (beginning of 2003 – end of 2010), but had announced that he would prioritize environmental and climate protection .
After four years, Germany recently resumed aid payments for a fund to protect the rainforest in the Amazon region. This so-called Amazon Fund was launched in 2008, but was recently frozen due to disagreements over the use of the money under the government of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro.
For the right-wing populist, the Amazon region primarily represented untapped economic potential. During his term in office (2019-2022), deforestation and slash-and-burn practices increased sharply. He gave farmers and gold prospectors a largely free hand in seizing land. He cut funding from the control authorities or took away their powers.
