As Brazil Cracks Down on Forest Clearing, Emissions Fall

Last year Brazil saw its biggest drop in emissions since 2009, new data show. The decline comes in the wake of a crackdown on deforestation.

Since returning to power in 2022, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has moved to stem illicit clearing of forest by miners, loggers, and farmers, stepping up enforcement that had been weakened under his predecessor, far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is now at its lowest level in more than a decade.

In Brazil, forests are largely destroyed to create new cropland and pasture, and together, the loss of forest and raising of cattle are its biggest sources of emissions. Lula’s crackdown on illegal deforesters has put those emissions in check.


https://e360.yale.edu/digest/brazil-deforestation-emissions-cop30