In Focus: Changing Land Use Policies in the Amazon

The recent election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (commonly called Lula) as president in Brazil has buoyed hopes that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest will slow. Lula has set the goal of net-zero deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 2030, and recent research has shown that deforestation has begun to slow. James Boyd, a senior fellow and director of the Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture Program at Resources for the Future, discusses the current pace of deforestation in the Amazon, potential difficulties that Lula’s administration may face in reaching its 2030 goal, and why the Amazon is important to health of the climate.