Madar (International) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon reached 3,335 square kilometres between August 2025 and July 2026, down 41.8% on the previous period and the lowest rate since the data series began in 1988, the Brazilian government announced on Friday, 16 October 2026, citing figures from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) published by the official Agencia Gov.
In the Cerrado, the vast savanna of central Brazil, vegetation clearance fell 23.8% to 5,516.69 square kilometres, the lowest since monitoring began in 2001. In the Amazon, the largest cleared areas were recorded in the states of Para, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
The government said the Amazon figure is an estimate based on priority satellite images, with the consolidated rate due in the first half of next year. It credited tighter enforcement for the fall, noting that environmental agency Ibama carried out more than 76,000 inspection operations between 2023 and 2026.
"Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X, while Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco called the decline "absolutely stratospheric", the BBC reported. The announcement comes ahead of the 25 October presidential run-off between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro.
