Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to record low before presidential runoff
Brazil’s annual estimate puts forest clearance at 3,335 square kilometres, nearly 42% below the previous year, as the country approaches an October 25 election runoff.
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research released figures on October 16 showing that 3,335 square kilometres of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared from August 2025 through July 2026, the lowest annual total since records began in 1988. The decline brings forest protection into focus before Brazil’s October 25 presidential runoff.
The estimate is nearly 42% below the previous year’s 5,731 square kilometres. The Guardian put the year-on-year decline at 41.8% and identified the figures as part of Inpe’s Prodes satellite series, which tracks deforestation across the Brazilian Amazon.
How the Amazon figures compare
The Guardian reported that clearance has fallen 71.2% since 2022, the year before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office. It attributed much of the longer decline to stronger enforcement and investment in environmental agencies. Those measures are part of the policy context for the figures, though the annual estimate alone cannot establish how much each measure contributed.
Pará accounted for 33.9% of the latest annual Amazon clearance, Mato Grosso for 25.5% and Amazonas for 15.7%, according to the Guardian. The paper reported that each state’s total fell by more than 45% from the previous year. Roraima was the only state to record an increase, of 0.4%.
Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco described the national decline as an ‘absolutely stratospheric drop’ at a Brasília press conference, Deutsche Welle reported. Lula reiterated his goal of ending illegal deforestation by 2030 in a post on X after the figures were released, according to an AFP report published by The Straits Times.
Forest policy ahead of Brazil’s October 25 runoff
The figures arrive as Lula faces conservative senator Flávio Bolsonaro in the October 25 presidential runoff. Bolsonaro is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, during whose administration illegal forest clearance by ranchers and miners rose, according to AFP. The election puts the direction of future environmental policy in question; the latest figures measure clearance during the year ending in July, rather than what will happen after the vote.
Brazil contains approximately 60% of the Amazon rainforest, AFP reported. The forest’s role in absorbing greenhouse gases means a change in clearance matters beyond Brazil, while the newly released total describes only the Brazilian Amazon over the measured year. Whether the decline continues will depend on developments beyond that period.
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Sources and context
- Brazil: Amazon deforestation lowest in nearly 40 yearsDeutsche Welle
- Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest on record as pivotal vote loomsThe Guardian
- Deforestation in Brazil Amazon hits nearly four-decade lowAgence France-Presse (republished by The Straits Times; AFP credit in retrieved text)
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