Brazil's Amazon deforestation hits record low: Why it matters amid election battle

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has recorded its lowest annual deforestation rate since records began in 1988, with 3,335 square kilometres of forest cleared between August 2025 and July 2026, according to the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).The area cleared was 41.8 per cent lower than the 5,731 square kilometres recorded in the previous 12-month period, marking a significant decline in forest loss.The figures offer a boost to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s efforts to curb deforestation and meet his government’s target of ending illegal forest clearance by 2030.The previous record low for Amazon deforestation was 4,571 square kilometres in 2011–12, while annual forest loss peaked at nearly 30,000 square kilometres in the mid-1990s.“This is an absolutely stratospheric drop … it’s like a dream,” environment minister João Paulo Capobianco said at a news conference in Brasília, according to Al Jazeera.Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of climate advocacy group Observatório do…