Deforestation in the Amazon is declining, but there is more going on…

Although there is less deforestation, approximately 327 football fields are still cut down every day. WWF warns: Destruction of forests in the Cerrado savannah is increasing.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in the first two months of the year was at its lowest level since 2018, a report said. In January and February, 196 square kilometers of Amazon forest were cleared, 63 percent less, the Amazon environmental group said Monday. than it was in the same period last year.

The area is still equivalent to approximately 327 football fields per day. “The data shows that we still face a major challenge,” said Larissa Amorim, a researcher at Amazon.com.

The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took power with a promise to combat deforestation. Under Lula's predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation increased by 75 percent compared to the average of the previous decade.

WWF warns: More deforestation in savannas

Although developments in the Amazon region were positive, the environmental organization WWF in Austria noted severe forest destruction in the Brazilian Cerrado region, which increased sharply in February. This is indicated by current data from the National Space Institute (INPE), which shows a 19 percent increase in deforestation warnings compared to February of last year, according to the WWF. For the period from August 2023 to February 2024, the INPE monitoring system shows forest loss of 3,798 square kilometres. This is nine times the size of Vienna and represents a 63 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Cerrado is the name given to the humid savannah of southeastern Brazil.

“The new numbers continue a trend that began last year: while conservation efforts in the Amazon are taking effect, chainsaws are now spreading even worse in the Cerrado region,” warned Julia Haslinger, a sustainable nutrition expert at WWF Austria. The destruction is moving from the planet's most important rainforests to the most species-rich savannas. Every year, about 100,000 hectares of the Cerrado are destroyed to grow soybeans as animal feed. About 16 percent of soybeans imported to Europe today comes from the Cerrado region.(APA/AFP/RED.)