BOGOTA, Colombia

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon this year has fallen 31% compared to 2023, according to local officials.

Brazilian officials said the country’s loss of the Amazon rainforest dropped nearly a third compared to the previous year, marking the lowest level in the past nine years, local media reported.

Independent environmentalists, however, reported that the Amazon rainforest lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles) of forest cover in the past 12 months, equivalent to the size of the US state of Delaware.

Environmentalists are calling on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to exert more effort in protecting the Amazon rainforest, while also expressing concern over the alarming biodiversity loss in the Cerrado region of the country.

While highlighting the president's efforts to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, environmentalists noted that the region has still suffered significant damage due to oil exploration and railway construction.

Government officials recalled that one of the causes of deforestation is fires and announced that Amazon fires will be more closely monitored through satellite tracking.

After winning the presidential election in October 2022, Lula, who promised to "protect the Amazon rainforest," said the government's goal for 2030 is to achieve zero deforestation.

Known as the world's largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon had experienced severe deforestation during the presidency of the previous far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw record levels of forest loss each year.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas