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Brazil accounted for nearly half of tropical deforestation globally in 2022, found a new study. Can president Lula da Silva keep his vow to reverse the destruction wrought on the Amazon during his predecessor's term?

In former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro's four years in power, vast tracts of the Amazon fell to make way for mining, cattle ranches, and soybean farming. In 2022 alone, the last year of his leadership, almost two million hectares (5 million acres) of forest was lost. 

During his tenure from 2019 to 2022, Bolsonaro's administration weakened regulation and enforcement around deforestation, shrinking the budgets of agencies monitoring environmental crimes and pushing for laws allowing forest-destroying mining on indigenous land.

It took a toll. Deforestation in Brazil in 2015 accounted for just over a quarter of global tree cover loss in tropical primary forests, which are some of the oldest and most untouched forests in the world. That figure grew to 43% in 2022, according to authors of the new Global Forest Watch (GFW) report published by research organization World Resources Institute (WRI). 

The country also saw the highest amount of tree loss not related to fires since 2005, said the report.