Amazon deforestation down nearly 34% during Lula's first six months in office

Deforestation was down 33.6 per cent in Brazil's Amazon rainforest during the first six months ofPresident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's tenure, according to government satellite data released Thursday.

Under former president Jair Bolsonaro last year,therainforest shrank by 4,000 square kilometres - an area, roughly the size of Rhode Island. However, under Lula,the figure was down to 2,650 square kilometres.Additionally, the data showed there was a 41 per cent decline in deforestation alerts in June, regarded as the start of the dry season when the phenomenon picks pace.

“The effort of reversing the curve of growth has been reached. That is a fact: we reversed the curve; deforestation isn’t increasing,”saidJoao Paulo Capobianco, deforestation control secretary at Brazil's Environment Ministry.

One of the biggest poll planks of Lula during the presidential election trail was to protect the Amazon, the indigenous people and keep Brazil corruption free. He faced stiff competition fromBolsonaro but managed to achieve a narrow win, before finally clearing several political hurdles to become the top lawmaker.

The Lula administration imposed hefty fines to the tune of$406 million in the first five months of the year which contributed to the fight to protect the environment. The fines imposed saw an uptick of 160 per cent from the annual average figure for the same period during Bolsonaro's four tumultuous years in the office. Additionally, 2,255 farms were slapped with embargoes for environmental wrongdoing.

Still a long road ahead

The fight to protect Amazon, however, is far from over for Lula. In June alone, 3.075 instances of fires were reported in the rainforest - the most since 2007. Moreover, last month the conservative-majority Brazilian Senate passed a series of bills that curtail Lula's power to protect the forest, Indigenous communities andisolated tribes.

After Lula ascended to power, he created the country's first-everMinistry of Indigenous Peoples. However, the powers granted to the ministries were provisional and needed congressional approval to become permanent. After the passing of the bills, the ministry was taken away from Lula.

With Lula's power diminished, it opens the door to the construction of rampant infrastructure projects in the Amazon and protected indigenous lands that could put the tribal population and their already-dwindling culture in peril.

Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world and 60 per cent of it lies in Brazil. Due to the sheer number of trees growing there, Amazon is regarded as "the lungs of the planet". Deforestation in Amazon can have devastating consequences for the planet and Lula needs to keep the momentum going to achieve better end-of-the-year results.

(With inputs from agencies)

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