Deforestation last year slowed in all of Brazil’s nature biomes for the first time in six years, according to a report issued months before the country hosts a major UN climate conference at the end of this year.
The total area deforested in South America’s biggest country was 32.4 percent lower than in 2023, or about 1.24 million hectares, the report by monitoring agency MapBiomas said yesterday.
It was the second year in a row of lower deforestation, with 2023 also recording a decrease of 11 percent from the previous year.
Photo: Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to eradicate illegal deforestation by 2030 and wants to make Brazil a leader in combating global warming.
Yet despite the advances, Brazil still lost about 3,403 hectares of native vegetation daily last year.
Brazil is home to six biomes, each with its own climate, vegetation and animal life: the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest, the Cerrado, the Caatinga, the Pantanal and the Pampa.
In the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest on the planet, logging destroyed an average of 1,035 hectares daily, or “about seven trees per second,” the report said, mostly to clear land for agriculture.
The Cerrado, a tropical savanna rich in biodiversity, was the biome most affected by clearing for the second year in a row, losing 652,197 hectares.
Two-thirds of indigenous lands recorded no deforestation last year, the report said.
Deforestation is the intentional destruction of vegetation, and does not include forest fires, which reached record levels in Brazil last year.
COP30, the next round of UN climate talks, are due to take place in the Amazonian city of Belem in November.
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