Forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon was down 50 percent, year on year, in 2023, according to government figures.
Forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon was down 50 percent, year on year, in 2023, according to government figures.
Under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who left office at the end of 2022, deforestation in the Amazon reached a 15-year high. His successor, the left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has stepped up enforcement, curbing forest clearing by farmers and ranchers.
Last year saw the loss of 1,989 square miles of Brazilian rainforest, an area slightly larger than London, a drop from 3,963 square miles in 2022. The new left-wing government in neighboring Colombia has made similar progress in slowing the destruction of the Amazon.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
The Amazon rainforest near the Brazilian city of Manaus. (Photo Credit: Neil Palmer via Flickr)
