AGUA CLARA, Brazil (AP) — Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 30.6% compared to the previous year, officials said Wednesday, the lowest level of destruction in nine years.
In a 12-month span, the Amazon rainforest lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware.
The results, announced in Brazil´s presidential palace, sharply contrast with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s predecessor, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies. Deforestation hit a 15-year high during his term.
Deforestation in Brazil's vast savannah, known as the Cerrado, decreased by 25.7%, the first decline in five years. The area destroyed reached 8,174 square kilometers (3,156 square miles). Located in central Brazil, it is the world’s most biodiverse savannah but has fewer legal protections than the Amazon.
Despite the success in curbing Amazon deforestation, Lula's government has been criticized by environmentalists for backing projects that could harm the region, such as the pavement of a highway that cuts from an old-growth area, oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon River and building a railway to transport soy to Amazonian ports.
Brazil’s deforestation monitoring system tracks Aug. 1 to July 30, so Wednesday's report doesn’t capture the destruction from the past few months, as a historic drought opened the way to a surge in forest fires that burned an area larger than Switzerland.
Much of the damage from fires is classified as degradation, not clearcutting deforestation, as the fire in the Amazon rainforest spreads mostly through leaves on the ground, and not through treetops. But the full impact will be assessed in the following months through further satellite monitoring. Government officials already fear that the deforestation rate may increase next year as the Amazonian city of Belem prepares to host the annual U.N. climate talks, known as COP30.
The Amazon, an area twice the size of India, holds the world’s largest rainforest, about two-thirds of it within Brazil. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change. The Amazon thus prevents the climate from warming even faster than it would otherwise. The basin also holds about 20% of the world’s fresh water and biodiversity includes 16,000 known tree species.
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Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, right, chats with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin during the announcement of a plan to combat fires and deforestation in the Amazon and the Brazilian Cerrado, at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
FILE - A river borders an area that has been illegally deforested by land-grabbers and cattle farmers in an extractive reserve in Jaci-Parana, Rondonia state, Brazil, July 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Barcelona and Inter Milan won again in the Champions League on Wednesday though both former title holders are looking up in the standings toward upstart newcomer Brest.
Aston Villa started the week atop the 36-team table but its winning run ended after a bizarre penalty was awarded when defender Tyrone Mings picked up the ball in the area at Club Brugge, resulting in a 1-0 loss that sent the English club plummeting to eighth place.
Paris Saint-Germain, in its first season without Kylian Mbappé, trails far behind in 25th after Atletico Madrid scored in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win for the Spanish team at Parc des Princes.
Barcelona’s blistering scoring form continued in a 5-2 win at Red Star Belgrade — a seventh straight win since the start of October at a rate of four goals per game. Robert Lewandowski scored twice and has 21 this season.
Inter Milan stifled Arsenal in a 1-0 win at San Siro sealed by Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s penalty in first-half stoppage time.
Inter is unbeaten on 10 points and in fifth place, one below Brest which won 2-1 at Sparta Prague. The French debutant looks sure to advance to the knockout phase starting in February.
Atalanta won 2-0 at Stuttgart to stay unbeaten on eight points and Salzburg got its first goals and points in a 3-1 win at Feyenoord.
Bayern Munich won 1-0 at home to Benfica in a game that was delayed 15 minutes by crowd congestion and then was played in a muted atmosphere because of a medical incident for a fan.
Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov had a fine assist and an even better goal in a 2-1 win for the Ukrainian champion against Young Boys. Shakhtar’s No. 10 showed why he is expected to be the club’s next big-money sale.
Liverpool, which on Tuesday routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-0, leads the standings at the midway point of the eight-round program.
Liverpool is the only team with four straight wins, while five teams have four losses. They are Leipzig, Sturm Graz, Young Boys, Red Star and Slovan Bratislava.
Two Italian teams – Inter Milan and Atalanta – have yet to concede a goal in four games. Another Italian side, Bologna, is the only team with no goals scored.
Villa had led the standings in the new league-phase format after three straight wins without conceding a goal — and it took a bizarre incident before goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was eventually beaten.
Mings was punished for picking up the ball when Martínez seemed to restart play with a goal kick passed forward to his teammate. Mings walked a couple steps to gather the ball with his left hand and returned to place it in the six-yard box.
"It’s the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career,” Villa coach Unai Emery said. “It has only happened one time in all my life. Today.”
Brugge captain Hans Vanaken placed the 52nd-minute spot-kick to Martínez's left as the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.
It was the standout result of the inaugural week of the new Champions League in September: Bayern Munich 9, Dinamo Zagreb 2.
It was the first time a team had scored nine times in a game in the 32-year Champions League era, and Dinamo fired its coach two days later.
Since then? Bayern lost twice, including a 4-1 rout at Barcelona, and Dinamo won twice. At the end of play Wednesday, Bayern was 17th on six points, one place below Dinamo on seven. If those placings hold until January, they meet again twice more in the knockout playoffs round.
The fifth round in three weeks' time has perhaps the stellar attraction of 144 games in the league phase: Liverpool vs. Real Madrid.
That game on Nov. 27 is a rematch of the 2022 and 2018 finals, both won by Madrid, and the 1981 European Cup title match that Liverpool won.
There is another final rematch: Bayern Munich hosts PSG on Nov. 26 in a repeat of the pandemic-season final played in August 2020 without fans in Lisbon. Also, sixth-place Barcelona hosts Brest, a fixture which might have been overlooked when the draw was made in August yet the French team is currently fourth.
Only the top eight teams in January advance directly to the round of 16 in March.
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Brugge's Andreas Skov Olsen, left, and Aston Villa's Youri Tielemans fight for the ball during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Brugge's Ferran Jutgla, background, makes an attempt to score as Aston Villa's Tyrone Mings defends during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Shakhtar's Oleksandr Zubkov, centre, challenges for the ball with Young Boys' Lewin Blum during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Young Boys' Kastriot Imeri celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Shakhtar's Oleksandr Zubkov scores against Young Boys' goalkeeper Marvin Keller during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Shakhtar's Oleksandr Zubkov, centre, scores his side's opening goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Brugge's Christos Tzolis, left, stops Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Brugge's goalkeeper Simon Mignolet celebrates after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. Brugge won the match 1-0. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Shakhtar's Heorhiy Sudakov scores his side's second goal against Young Boys' goalkeeper Marvin Keller during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Shakhtar's Heorhiy Sudakov celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys Bern at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery watches the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Brugge's Hans Vanaken, left, celebrates with teammates after scoring a penalty his side's first goal, during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Aston Villa at Jan Breydelstadion in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
