AFTER four years of increasing destruction in Brazil’s Amazon region, deforestation has declined by 33.6 per cent in the six months since President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva took power, according to government satellite data.

From January to June, the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 1,023 square miles, down from around 2,500 square miles during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro.

This year’s data, released on Thursday, includes a 41 per cent plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.