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Logs are stacked at a lumber mill surrounded by recently charred and deforested fields near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, September 2019
AFTER four years of increasing destruction in Brazil’s Amazon region, deforestation has declined by 33.6 per cent in the six months since President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva took power, according to government satellite data.
From January to June, the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 1,023 square miles, down from around 2,500 square miles during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro.
This year’s data, released on Thursday, includes a 41 per cent plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.
Sovereignty and the rule of law are under threat from Trump’s attacks on Lula’s administration just as they have been across Latin America, argue CARLOS MARTINEZ and SARA VIVACQUA
Powerful agribusiness interests are trying to overturn efforts by the Lula government to protect the environment and indigenous peoples of the Amazon region, writes GABRIELA SA PESSOA
