Can we allow ourselves to be tentatively hopeful?
As the Independent titles: “Brazil could reach all-time lowest deforestation rates within two years”.
Deforestation in Brazil is projected to hit a historic low by 2025, reaching the same rates as in 2012 when the county’s deforestation rate was at its lowest recorded. Rodrigo Agostinho, the president of Ibama — Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency — further talks about plans to work in the direction of zero deforestation by 2030.
However, we must not forget that a fifteen-year deforestation high preceded the current developments in 2021 under President Jair Bolsonaro. During his 4-year presidency, deforestation had risen by 60 percent. Since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva replaced him in the beginning of 2023 deforestation rates are dropping.
Deforestation rates decreased by 33.6% within the first six months of Lula’s presidency, compared to the same period in 2022, according to government reports. Lula takes steps towards protecting the tropical forest in the Amazon, e.g. by decreeing new indigenous reserves, banning mining and restricting commercial farming there.
We can also take a hopeful look to Colombia, which also witnessed a sharp decrease of deforestation rates in 2023. During the first nine months of 2023, deforestation decreased by 70% compared with the same period last year. The change in government, with President Gustavo Petro taking power in 2022, has already contributed to a decline in deforestation from 2021 to 2022 and continues into 2023. The government pays the local population to take care of the forest and increased efforts to combat environmental crimes.
However, decreasing deforestation rates do not mean there is no deforestation anymore, just that it is less than in previous years. We are still talking about vast areas of rainforest being lost. Additionally, fires continue to affect the Amazon and in Colombia conflicts and drought threaten to reverse the trend.
The direction may be the right one but there is still a way to go.
Sources: