• In 2024, deforestation in Brazil fell by 32.4 per cent compared to the previous year.
• 89 per cent of the deforested area is located in the Amazon and the Cerrado savanna.
• All biomes saw a decline in deforestation compared to 2023, with the exception of the Atlantic Forest, where it remained stable.

During the years of the administration led by Jair Bolsonaro, the periodic reports from MapBiomas – the coalition of NGOs, universities and companies monitoring deforestation in Brazil – read like war bulletins. Relatively little time has passed (Lula won the elections at the end of 2022), but the data tell a different story. Following 2023, 2024 also saw a decline in the deforested area across the country. With one particular distinction: for the first time since 2019, the year these surveys began, this trend applies to all six biomes of Brazil.

The decline in deforestation in Brazil in 2024

Deforestation in Brazil moves in waves. Waves that are the product of political choices, market conditions and weather patterns. Between 2010 and 2018, under the centre-left administration of first Dilma Rousseff and then Michel Temer (who took her place following the impeachment), many environmental protections were dismantled. Two examples are the reform of the forest code in 2012 and the abolition of the Renca reserve, partially overturned amid controversy. The far-right former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, openly hostile towards environmental causes and indigenous peoples, further loosened controls and sanctions.

As a result, MapBiomas calculates that the deforested area amounted to 16,406 km² in 2020, 18,271 km² in 2021 and 21,146 km² in 2022. From 2023 onwards, a reversal was recorded, with a minus 11 per cent bringing it to just under 18,367 km², the vast majority of which between the Amazon and the Cerrado savanna: the latter, for the first time, recorded the highest deforestation rate among all biomes. 2024 saw a further decrease of 32.4 per cent: deforestation came to a halt at 12,420 km². These are figures that should not be underestimated, however. According to MapBiomas, between 2019 and 2024 deforestation in Brazil destroyed an area equivalent to the entire state of South Korea – two thirds of it within the legal Amazon.

Deforestation rates in the Amazon, the Cerrado and the other biomes

The Cerrado is confirmed for the second consecutive year as the biome with the largest deforested area. On its own, it accounts for more than 6,500 km², over half of the national total. The figure is nonetheless encouraging when compared to the previous year, showing a 40 per cent decline. The tropical savanna is home to vast soybean fields destined for livestock feed; and it cannot be ruled out that this is the very same beef that ends up on European supermarket shelves. In second place is the Amazon, which accounts for a further 30.4 per cent of Brazil's deforestation in 2024. The total stands at 3,777 km²: the lowest figure since 2019, the year MapBiomas began its surveys.

The Amazon and the Cerrado alone account for 89 per cent of the area deforested in 2024. But the single largest deforestation event ever recorded by MapBiomas occurred in the Caatinga, a semi-arid region in north-eastern Brazil whose vegetation consists mainly of cacti and other thorny plants. Within just three months, 136 km² were destroyed on a single rural property. In 2024, all six biomes of Brazil saw a decline in deforestation compared to the previous year, with the sole exception of the Atlantic Forest, where it remained stable following a 60 per cent drop between 2022 and 2023. In the Pantanal wetlands, the reduction was 58.6 per cent compared to 2023.