Amazon Deforestation Soars 92% as Brazil Prepares to Host COP30
With just five months until COP30 in Belém, Amazon deforestation has surged 92% year-on-year—960 km² lost by May 2025—undermining Brazil’s green leadership as wildfires and drought ravage its forests.
960 km² lost by May 2025—51% from wildfires—raises urgent questions just months before the “Amazon Summit” Photo: @XHespanol
June 7, 2025 Hour: 3:33 am
Five months out from COP30 in Belém, data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE, May 2025) reveal that Amazon deforestation jumped 92% between May 2024 and May 2025. Fueled by wildfires and record-shattering droughts, this surge undercuts the climate-leader image Brazil hopes to showcase at the upcoming summit.
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By May 2025, the world’s largest rainforest had lost 960 km² of forest cover—an area roughly the size of New York City—marking the second-highest May deforestation rate since 2016. The federal government attributes 51% of that loss to wildfires (up from just 1% in 2022) and the balance to unprecedented droughts driven by climate change. “This threatens to undo the progress we’ve made since 2023 and forces us to redouble our efforts”, warned Interim Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco. “We urgently call on the international community to support the Forests Forever Fund, which compensates nations that safeguard their forests”.
A joint report by the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland found that 6.7 million ha of primary tropical forest vanished globally in 2024—80% more than in 2023—making Brazil the hardest-hit country by wildfires during its worst drought on record. “Tropical forest degradation is now a red-alert emergency”, said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch.
For Indigenous communities, the devastation is existential. “The forest binds us together. If the Amazon dies, our cultures, our rivers and our very identity perish”, declared Colombian Amazon leader Fany Kuiru at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization summit. Meanwhile, Indigenous environmental stewards report “extreme drought and heat that make fishing and fruit gathering impossible”—clear proof that the climate no longer forgives mistakes.
How can we host a “green summit” while the forest burns? Already, Bill 2159/2021—the so-called Devastation Bill—has moved to the Chamber of Deputies after clearing the Senate. “It poses the greatest threat to Brazil’s environment and public health”, warned Mauricio Guetta of the Socioenvironmental Institute. “By stripping out indirect-impact assessments, it paves the way for mass deforestation”, added Lucas Louback of activist network NOSSAS.
These legislative shifts clash head-on with Brazil’s Paris Agreement pledge of zero deforestation by 2030. President Lula da Silva has vowed to tighten emissions targets and expand protected areas, but INPE’s figures—and a surge in illegal mining and agribusiness invasions—cast serious doubt on those promises.
Between 2024 and 2025, Brazil’s enforcement agencies—Ibama and ICMBio—carried out nearly 19,000 operations in the Amazon, issued over 5,000 fines and embargoed 560,600 ha. Yet NGOs warn these actions pale beside the relentless advance of large-scale soy and cattle interests into Indigenous territories.
Local voices add nuance: Pará Governor Waldez Gomes emphasizes the economic stakes, noting that “Belém’s hotels, ports and small businesses are counting on a successful COP30 to boost sustainable tourism”. Meanwhile, sustainable rancher Ana Silva explains how agroforestry programs—like the Rainforest Alliance’s Amazon Restoration Initiative—can restore degraded land while supporting rural livelihoods.
Elsewhere, two other major biomes bucked the trend: the Cerrado—Brazil’s savanna hotspot—saw deforestation drop by 25.7%, and the Pantanal—the largest seasonal wetland on earth—recorded a 74% reduction. Still, the Amazon’s losses are nearly ten times those of the Cerrado, underscoring the urgent need to defend the planet’s largest green lung.
The Amazon stands at a tipping point: fire, chainsaws and drought threaten its very existence. COP30 must deliver real commitments—robust climate finance, enforceable legal safeguards and Indigenous land rights—to transform the “Amazon Summit” into a genuine beacon of hope. Otherwise, we risk watching the world’s greatest forest vanish under our watch.
Author: MK
Source: Brasil de Fato