Brazil’s progress highlights the role of sustained environmental policies in reducing forest loss, cutting emissions and demonstrating that economic growth can coexist with conservation.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell to a record low of 3,335 square kilometres in 2026, according to official data released Friday, with the decline showing that halting and reversing forest loss by 2030 is possible, the Brazilian civil society network Observatório do Clima said.
The figure, recorded by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), was the lowest since satellite monitoring began in 1988. It represented a 41.81 percent decrease from the 5,731 square kilometres recorded last year and a 71.2 percent decline over the past four years.
In the Cerrado, Brazil’s fastest-deforested biome, the area cleared also fell to a record low of 5,516 square kilometres. That was a 23.76 percent decline from 7,235 square kilometres last year and a 48.4 percent decrease over the past four years.
The data, released on Friday, October 16, were described by Observatório do Clima as evidence that ending deforestation is possible and that political will is essential to achieving it.
The current administration took office after four years of what the organisation described as deliberate anti-environmental policies, during which deforestation recorded its largest increase under a single presidential term since the historical series began, rising 60 percent compared with the previous period.
During the four years of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third term, the Amazon lost 24,648 square kilometres of forest, 46 percent less than the 45,586 square kilometres deforested under the administration of Jair Bolsonaro.
Observatório do Clima said the latest results followed a sustained government commitment to environmental protection and a set of public policies aimed at combating environmental crimes under the leadership of Marina Silva, former minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Actions by Ibama, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, including collective embargoes on deforested areas and remote satellite monitoring, as well as expanded financing instruments such as the Amazon Fund, were key to the results, the organisation said.
The decline in deforestation also had implications beyond forest protection, according to Observatório do Clima. Efforts to curb forest destruction over the past four years prevented at least 2.238 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
At the same time, the organisation said Brazil’s agribusiness sector continued to expand. Its GDP is projected to reach R$3.13 trillion in 2026, an increase of 17.67 percent from the agricultural sector’s GDP in 2022, the final year of Bolsonaro’s administration.
“The figures released today are a historic achievement. They put Brazil at the forefront of the forest protection agenda and show the world that, with political will, it is possible to stop the chainsaws and curb greenhouse gas emissions,” said Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of Observatório do Clima.
Founded in 2002, Observatório do Clima is a Brazilian civil society network focused on the climate agenda, with 172 member organisations including environmental NGOs, research institutes and social movements.
Since 2013, the network has published SEEG, its annual estimate of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil.
