BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell by 11% from August 2024 to July this year, the government said Thursday, even as wildfires tracked by Brazil’s space agency surged to record levels amid a severe drought. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 5,796 square kilometers (2,238 square miles) of forest were cleared between August 2024 and July 2025 — an area nearly four times the size of New York City, but still a significant drop from the previous year and the lowest level in nearly a decade. The Environment Ministry said the drop in deforestation reflects stronger environmental enforcement, expanded satellite monitoring and renewed coordination among federal agencies. The results come just weeks before Brazil hosts the COP30 U.N. climate summit in the Amazon city of Belem, where the country will be under pressure to demonstrate progress toward its 2030 goal of ending illegal deforestation. At the same time, INPE reported that fire detections in the Amazon from January through October 2025 were the highest since 2010. Widespread burning and prolonged drought have blanketed parts of northern Brazil in smoke, forcing flight cancellations and prompting health warnings in states such as Amazonas and Para. Experts say the fires — often used to clear already-deforested land — risk undermining recent conservation gains. Ibama, Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency, said during the announcement that it carried out 9,540 inspections this year, a 38% increase from 2024, issuing 2.85 billion reais ($520 million) in environmental fines this year and seizing more than 4,500…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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