Overview
- Official data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and the science ministry put Amazon forest loss at 2,874 square kilometres for the 12‑month period from August 2025 to July 2026, a decline of about 36–37 percent from the prior year.
- Independent monitoring group MapBiomas reported that burned area also fell sharply to about 3.1 million hectares, roughly an 80 percent drop from the previous year.
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented the figures as evidence the 2030 target to stop illegal deforestation is attainable and has used them as a campaign point ahead of the October presidential election.
- The decline follows a peak of roughly 12,500 square kilometres in 2022 under Jair Bolsonaro and experts warn a single‑year fall does not guarantee a long‑term reversal without sustained enforcement, funding and land‑use policy changes.
- The change matters for the global climate because the Amazon stores large amounts of carbon, and the next signals to watch are continued satellite detections, police and environmental agency operations, and on‑the‑ground forest protection in affected states.