“Lula’s actions in favor of the Amazon should not hide the fact that he has sold on other environmental files”

François-Michel Le Tourneau is a geographer, director of research at the CNRS and specialist in the Brazilian Amazon and French Guiana. He directs the world’s research unit in transition, partnership between the CNRS and the University of Sao Paulo. He is the author of The Amazon. History, geography and environment and Gold researchers. Clandestine gold panning in French Guyana (CNRS Editions, 2019 and 2024). While the 30^e Conference of the games on the climate (COP30) will be held in Brazil, in the Amazonian city of Belem, in November, he draws up an inventory of the situation of the largest tropical forest of the planet.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell in half, with 6,288 square kilometers of forest destroyed between August 2023 and July 2024, against 13,000 square kilometers in 2021, at the worst hours of Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate [2019-2023]. Does the “Lula method” bear fruit?

Jair Bolsonaro had established a launch policy in the Amazon, but he did not affect the legal building for the environmental protection. Lula therefore had all the tools to take over the situation. He sent the message that the “sheriff had returned to the city”, and restored the financing of the organizations responsible for enforcing the law, such as the federal police or the agency Ibama [Institut brésilien de l’environnement et des ressources naturelles renouvelables]which has produced immediate effects. This is good news!

But the Amazon is not saved however, since large pieces are lost each year: 6,200 square kilometers, it is the equivalent of the department of Savoy … In addition, if deforestation slows down, 2024 was marked by a large number of forest fires resulting from a historic drought linked to global warming. Less deforestation for a year does not immediately change the evolution of the rain cycle. Especially since it is a global phenomenon: the Amazon can find itself Affected by the effects on the climate of pollution emitted on the other side of the planet.

You have 80.31% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.