SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell almost 10% in May from the previous year, preliminary government data showed on Wednesday.
Official data from space research agency Inpe showed that 812 square km (around 313 square miles) were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon last month, below the 900 square km reported in the previous year.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won 2022 election promising to ramp up efforts to end deforestation in the Amazon after years of surging destruction under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
The former far-right president had slashed environmental protection efforts, cutting funding and staff at key agencies as he called for more farming and mining on protected lands.
This year through the end of May, land clearing in the Amazon fell 31% compared to the same five months of 2022, according to Inpe data.
In April, the government reported the first major drop under Lula.
On Monday, his administration outlined an action plan aiming to eliminate illegal deforestation in the rainforest by 2030, which includes boosting intelligence and satellite imagery to track criminal activity, regularization of land titles and the use of a rural registry to monitor correct management of forests considered vital for slowing the catastrophic effects of fossil fuel-driven climate change.
(Reporting by Peter Frontini and Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
