The highest rate of deforestation (27,700 km2) in the Brazilian Amazon was recorded in 2014, according to the Legal Amazon Deforestation Satellite Monitoring Project. Nov. 30, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@GracielaMariani

Brasilia, December 2 (RHC)-- Between August 2021 and July 2022, the deforested area of the Amazon region reached 11 568 square kilometers, said the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).  According to INPE data released on Wednesday, the figure indicates a decrease of 11.27 percent compared to the period from August 2020 to July 202, when 13 038 square kilometers of forest were lost.

The Satellite Monitoring of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon Project (Prodes), considered the most accurate for measuring annual deforestation rates, provided the above figures.

In 2004, the country recorded the highest rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with 27 700 square kilometers of forest lost.   In contrast, 2012 was the year with the least devastation in the Amazon, when 4 500 square kilometers were lost, according to Prodes. Three years later, the situation was reversed.

Under the government of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, rainforest loss increased by 59.5 percent, said the Climate Observatory.  The entity's executive secretary, Marcio Astrini, said after the release of the INPE data that "Bolsonaro received the country with a rate of 7 500 square kilometers of deforestation in the Amazon and is handing it over with 11 500 kilometers."

President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who will take office on January 1st, has pledged to put Brazil back on the environmental stage and diplomacy.