Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Falls 36 Percent in Nine Months

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon decreased 36 percent between August 2025 and March 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, the Brazilian Human and Environment Amazon Institute reported. The total area cleared during those nine months came to 1,460 square kilometers, or 564 square miles, the lowest level recorded since 2018.

Pará and Mato Grosso, states that have historically seen high levels of clearing, recorded the largest reductions. Deforestation in Pará fell 52 percent, or by 467 square kilometers. Mato Grosso, the country's top soybean-producing state, saw a 38 percent decline equal to 163 square kilometers.

Amazonas state, which contains the largest share of the rainforest, recorded 219 square kilometers cleared compared with 335 square kilometers in the previous period. The report documented reductions across the Amazon biome in all but one of the nine states it touches.

Roraima was the exception, with deforestation rising 21 percent to 222 square kilometers. The state also experienced a sharp increase in fire outbreaks, with seven of the 10 municipalities recording the most fires located there. Caracaraí municipality has been the leading hotspot for fires in the country for three years.

Amazon biome as a whole, the number of wildfires increased by one-third in the first months of 2026 even as deforestation slowed. Larissa Amorim, a researcher at the Brazilian Human and Environment Amazon Institute, said the March increase should prompt governments to strengthen enforcement against illegal deforestation.

Amorim called for expanded bioeconomic activities such as production of açaí and Brazil nuts as well as formal protection for unused lands. Designated conservation areas were not spared from clearing. The Triunfo do Xingu environmental protection area in Pará lost 35 square kilometers and ranked among the five most affected municipalities in the report.

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Paulo Brando, a researcher and associate professor at the Yale School of the Environment, said sustained reductions in deforestation indicate that government actions are generally moving in the right direction. Ana Clis Ferreira, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil, attributed the declines to measures taken by the environment department under Minister Marina Silva, including reinforcement of the First Action Plan for the Control of the Environment in the Amazon, improved fire management and strengthened operations by Ibama, Brazil’s environment and renewables institute.

““History shows us that this decrease can be fragile, and that destruction occurs quicker than protection.””

Ferreira noted that 2026 is an election year and that deforestation rates have historically risen during the second half of the year, which coincides with the dry season. She added that Congress has at times acted as a threat to environmental protection.

Deforestation in the Amazon spiked in 2019 during the first year of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s term before beginning a decline in 2020. Stephen Porder, a professor of ecology at Brown University, said the lower rates represent progress but that clearing must reach zero quickly to preserve the forest.