As UN climate talks loom, Brazil’s Amazon forest loses in May an area larger than NYC
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — 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 960 square kilometers (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.
João Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary of Brazil’s ministry of the environment, said the Amazon is entering “a new era,” in which most of the deforestation is increasingly linked to a surge in wildfires rather than tree cutting.
During a news conference Friday, Capobianco said that the forest fires that swept the Amazon last year, during the region’s worst drought on record, only appeared in May’s data. The delay, he said, was attributed to two factors: improved satellite visibility after the rainy season, and clearer damage assessment due to drier weather.
Unlike wildfires in North America, where flames often reach treetops and spread rapidly, fires in the more humid Amazon typically burn along the forest floor, causing less immediate damage. Some areas recover over time, while others eventually collapse. Brazil’s monitoring system classifies an area as deforested when it loses more than 70% of its original vegetation.
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.
Capobianco noted the global rise in wildfires, citing Canada as an example, and urged the international community to support the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, a Brazilian initiative that proposes a long-term investment fund to compensate nations based on the area they conserve or restore.
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.
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