Deforestation reaches record lows in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado

Brazil’s annual deforestation area fell to its lowest recorded level in both the Amazon and the Cerrado, according to figures released by the government on Friday. The reductions cover the year to July 2026 and come as the country’s presidential run-off campaign puts the future of the rainforest in focus.

Satellite monitoring by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 3,335 sq km of deforestation in the Amazon Legal region between August 2025 and July 2026, down 41.8% from 5,731 sq km in the previous monitoring year. The series began in 1988. In the Cerrado, Brazil’s vast savannah region, the measured area fell 23.8% to 5,516.69 sq km, its lowest since records began in 2001. [1] [2]

The figures establish record-low annual areas, not record percentage drops. The Amazon’s previous lowest recorded area was 4,571 sq km in 2012, while the Cerrado’s previous low was 6,319 sq km in 2019, according to the government’s figures. [2]

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030. He faces Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in a run-off on 25 October. The BBC reports that polls point to a close contest and that Flávio Bolsonaro is expected to continue his father’s policies, while also pledging to fight organised crime in the Amazon. [3]

Brazil’s environment minister, João Paulo Capobianco, credited the decline to environmental policies and co-operation between federal, state and municipal authorities. The government has cited enforcement, monitoring and the creation of conservation areas among its actions. Those explanations are the government’s account of the figures; the monitoring data themselves measure vegetation cleared, not the effect of any single policy. [1] [2]

The annual measure covers suppression of native vegetation during a defined 12-month period. It is distinct from fire monitoring: fires may damage forest or burn land already cleared without being counted automatically as deforestation. [2]