outubro, 30 2025

By WWF-Brazil 
 

The annual deforestation rate in the Legal Amazon for the year 2025 was 5,796 km², down 11.08% from the previous period – the lowest rate in 11 years. In the Cerrado, there was also a reduction of 11.49%, with a rate of 7,235.27 km², the lowest in five years.

The data comes from the Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite (PRODES), of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the system in charge of measuring official deforestation rates. The figures refer to the period between August 1st, 2024, and July 31, 2025, and were released this Thursday, the 30th, a few days before the start of COP30, the climate conference to be held in Brasília next month.

“The results show that the resumption of plans to combat deforestation, such as the PPCDAm and PPCerrado, is paying off. After years of setbacks, Brazil is once again on a path to environmental leadership and demonstrating that it is possible to combine economic development with the protection of biomes. It is important that the private sector follows this movement, advancing in the implementation of real zero-deforestation commitments in its production chains,” says Alexandre Prado, climate change lead at WWF-Brazil.

In the Amazon, deforestation rates have been falling since 2022, after a period of successive increases between 2018 and 2021. In the Cerrado, rates had been increasing gradually but persistently until this trend reversed in 2024. The cumulative reduction between 2023 and 2025 was 34.29%.

The recent reduction in deforestation in the country's two main biomes is associated with efforts to control the devastation of natural areas that have been carried out since 2023, with the launch of initiatives such as the creation of a specific federal secretariat for deforestation control, the expansion of rural credit with environmental restrictions, and the resumption of enforcement, with the reactivation of environmental control and governance bodies that had been subjected to unprecedented dismantling between 2018 and 2022.

Other initiatives that decisively contributed to the reduction of devastation in the two biomes were the launch of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Fires in the Cerrado (PPCerrado) and the resumption of the Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAM).

A historically effective tool in reducing deforestation, the PPCDAM had been stalled between 2018 and 2022. The fifth phase of the program, developed in a few months after its resumption, contributed decisively to the recent decrease in deforestation in the biome, and was responsible for reducing more than 4 gigatons of CO2 emissions.

On the eve of COP30, the announcement of the decrease in deforestation is good news for Brazil and the world, paving the way for future benefits from the conservation of forests and areas of natural vegetation that can be expanded by initiatives such as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), an innovative financial mechanism proposed by the Brazilian government to raise funds for the protection of tropical forests in more than 70 countries. The fund, which is to be officially launched in Belém during the Leaders' Summit preceding COP30, also plans to allocate at least 20% of its resources directly to indigenous peoples, recognising their fundamental role in the conservation of native forests.

If this downward trend in deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes consolidates over time, it could contribute to improving Brazil's image in an international market that is increasingly demanding sustainable production. "With COP30 approaching, this is the ideal moment for companies and the government to jointly reinforce a consistent agenda to address climate change, implementing nationally the commitment to eliminate deforestation by 2030," adds Prado.

Threats 

Despite the progress, the country faces several threats of setbacks regarding the sustainability of production and land use. Among the main threats are the so-called Devastation Bill (2.159/2021), which weakens environmental licensing, and the unprecedented attacks in recent years on the Soy Moratorium.

The Soy Moratorium was one of the most effective instruments for reducing the rate of deforestation in the Amazon, with international recognition. Legislative initiatives to weaken or eliminate it, at the federal and state levels, could lead to the loss of an effort spanning almost 20 years that led Brazilian soy production to gain the trust of international markets, increasing exports while reducing its deforestation footprint.

Deforestation also harms productive activities, generating an additional cost to climate change, with increasingly frequent crop failures. Therefore, it is crucial that the public authorities remain active in monitoring and strengthening the environmental protection system, but also in engaging the private sector to make their production chains sustainable and deforestation-free.

The productive sector, therefore, must seek financial mechanisms to value sustainable production and leverage resources for good practices, implementing business commitments to eliminate deforestation from commodity production chains.

Less clear-cutting, more fire

The area deforested in the Amazon between August 2024 and July 2025 was the lowest in the biome in the last 11 years. According to INPE, there has been a change in the pattern of Amazon deforestation in recent years, with an increase in the proportion of deforestation caused by "progressive degradation," associated with the presence of fire, compared to clear-cutting. Of the nearly 5,800 km² deforested in the biome in the last period, 60% corresponds to clear-cutting (3,600 km²) and 38% (2,200 km²) to progressive degradation. In 2022, clear-cutting accounted for 92% and progressive degradation for 7%.

The Amazonian states which saw the largest deforestation reduction in 2025 were Roraima, with -37.39% (from 468 to 293 km2), Rondônia, with -33.61% (from 360 to 239 km2), Acre, with -27.62% (from 449 to 325 km2), and Maranhão, with -26.06% (from 307 to 227 km2). Amazonas and Pará reduced deforestation by -16.93% and -12.40%, respectively (registering 207 and 297 km2). Mato Grosso was the only state with an increase in deforestation: 25.05% (from 1,257 to 1,572 km2).

In 2025, the Cerrado biome experienced its lowest deforestation rate in five years. This marked the second consecutive decrease in the biome, following four years of increases. Within the MATOPIBA states in the Cerrado, deforestation rates decreased by 26.20% in Tocantins (from 2,019 to 1,489 km²), and by 19.30% in Maranhão (from 2,487 to 2,006 km²), but increased by 33.10% in Piauí (from 1,014 to 1,350 km²) and 9.30% in Bahia (from 723 to 790 km²). MATOPIBA is the country's newest agricultural frontier, highlighting the relationship between the expansion of commodity production and environmental destruction.