DATA from a monitoring project under the National Institute for Space Research showed that deforestation in Legal Amazon decreased by 22.3% from August 2022 to July 2023.
Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, presented the report during a press conference at Palácio do Planalto – the official workplace of the president of Brazil.
According to the minister, the initiative to increase the inspection capacity of the Legal Amazon to 200% along with intensified command and control actions led them to achieve the landmark reduction.
The news comes at a time when local officials face criticisms over significant deforestation in the region fueled by logging, farming, mining, and infrastructure projects on forest land.
A study released in 2020 by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network revealed that deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018.
Legal Amazon is home to around 24-M to 28-M people and contains all nine states in the Amazon basin.
The Amazon rainforest is called the “lung of the planet earth”.
The world’s largest rainforest is responsible for absorbing 25% of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
