Brazil's deforestation just hit record lows — and a new study says enforcement is a big reason why

Laws only protect forests if somebody enforces them. That is the finding of a University of Bonn study of the borderland where Brazil's Amazon rainforest meets the Cerrado savanna, published in Global Environmental Change. Javier Miranda, David Wuepper and Jan Börner tracked forest loss along the biome boundary from 2000 to 2022 and found the same protection rules produced very different results depending on how credibly they were enforced on the ground. The study lands as Brazil reports annual deforestation in both biomes at its lowest recorded levels — evidence, the researchers say, that conservation policy works when it is backed by real inspection and consequences.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: legal ruling