BRAZILIAN Amazon deforestation fell 22.3% in the year through July, hitting a five-year low, officials said yesterday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government fights to curb destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest.

Satellite monitoring found 9,001 sq km of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2022 to July 2023, according to national space agency INPE’s annual deforestation tracking programme, PRODES.