The new figures

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) published its annual satellite count on Friday, 16 October 2026. Between August 2025 and July 2026, 3,335 square kilometres of Amazon forest were cleared, the lowest figure since records began in 1988. The fall is 41.8% against the previous cycle, which recorded 5,731 square kilometres. The numbers come from Prodes, the satellite monitoring project Inpe runs to calculate Brazil's official deforestation rates, and were presented at an event in the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília.

Amazon deforestation by annual cycle (km²) (km²)
Previous cycle5,731Aug 2025 to Jul 20263,335

The Cerrado savanna showed a similar pattern. Clearing there totalled 5,516.69 square kilometres from July 2025 to July 2026, down 23.8% from 7,235.27 square kilometres in the year before. It is the lowest figure in a series that starts in 2001.

Cerrado deforestation by annual cycle (km²) (km²)
Jul 2024 to Jul 20257,235.27Jul 2025 to Jul 20265,516.69

Policy behind the drop

The government says deforestation has fallen 71% since 2023. Lula took office in January 2023 for a third, non-consecutive term and revived the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon, known as PPCDAm. That plan was launched in 2004 and shelved under Jair Bolsonaro. Its measures include restoring sanctions for illegal clearing detected by satellites, a tool that had been halted under Bolsonaro. The government also proposed barring properties with illegal deforestation from bank loans, and it directed more funding to priority Amazon municipalities that reduced forest loss. Marina Silva, who led the environment ministry until she resigned in April to run for Congress, helped carry the plan out, and her former deputy Joao Paulo Capobianco is now the minister.

During Bolsonaro's presidency from 2019 to 2022, deforestation rose by about 60%, with more than 45,000 square kilometres cleared, according to official data. Clearing reached a peak of 12,500 square kilometres in 2022.

Key dates in Brazil's deforestation policy and election
  1. Lula takes office for a third, non-consecutive term and revives the PPCDAm plan
  2. Inpe releases Prodes figures showing 3,335 sq km of Amazon forest cleared
  3. Runoff election between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro

Reactions and warnings

Capobianco described the drop in a press conference in Brasília in strikingly positive terms, calling it almost unbelievable. Lula wrote on X after the release that his goal is zero illegal deforestation by 2030. Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, a network of Brazilian environmental groups, argued that the results show environmental protection and economic growth can advance together.

The formula is always the same, and it works.

— Marcio Astrini

Astrini added that the latest rates suggest the 2030 target is reachable without harming the economy. Fires, drought and climate change remain threats to the forest, according to the reporting.

Election backdrop

Lula is seeking a fourth term, and the decisive round is a runoff on 25 October against Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of Jair Bolsonaro. In the first round, Bolsonaro won 47% of the vote to Lula's 45%. In the final polls before that vote, Lula had narrowly led, and a close runoff is expected. Bloomberg framed highway construction through the Amazon rainforest as a point where the tensions of the presidential race are most visible.