MANAUS, Brazil — Brazil’s environmental goals suffered a major setback in May as deforestation in the Amazon surged 92% compared to the same month last year, according to official monitoring data released Friday.
Forest loss reached 371 square miles during the period, an area slightly larger than New York City. It was the second-highest total for May since the current monitoring system was implemented in 2016.
The increase risks reversing the year-over-year decline in forest clearance since 2023, when Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began his third term. During his campaign, the leftist leader had pledged to end deforestation by 2030.
Brazil’s monitoring system tracks deforestation from Aug. 1 to July 30. Over the past 10 months, deforestation has risen 9.7% compared to the same period a year earlier.
The 2025 deforestation rate, tracked by the National Institute for Space Research, is expected to be announced just before the U.N. climate talks, scheduled for November in the Amazonian city of Belém.
Brazil is one of the world’s top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases, contributing about 3% of global emissions, according to the nonprofit Climate Watch. Almost half of those emissions come from deforestation, making efforts to halt it critical to meeting Brazil’s commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Amazon, an area almost twice the size of India, contains the world’s largest rainforest, about two-thirds of it within Brazil. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, holds about 20% of the world’s freshwater and is home to hundreds of Indigenous tribes, some living in isolation, and 16,000 known tree species.
Maisonnave writes for the Associated Press.