In the year to July 2026, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by nearly 42% [5], according the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)—the steepest decline since monitoring began in 1988 [6]—while losses in the Cerrado [7], Brazil's vast tropical savanna, fell by nearly 24%. Deforestation surged to its highest level in more than a decade in 2021 under far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. His successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, pledged to reverse the trend [8] when he took office in 2022. Lula and Bolsonaro's son, Flávio [9], faced each other in a tight presidential contest, with the left-wing incumbent achieving a surprise victory in the Oct. 25 run-off. (TNH [12], PRI [13])
