Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came into office in 2023 pledging to tackle deforestation in the Amazon and restore his country as a climate leader after years of intense destruction in the world's largest rainforest under predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula's commitment to end deforestation by 2030 is on track now with deforestation rates down by more than half, according to government figures, amid tighter environmental enforcement. But a new study indicates that deforestation alone accounts for only a fraction of climate damage involving the Amazon.

Logging, forest burning and other forms of human-caused degradation, along with natural disturbances to the Amazon ecosystem, are releasing more climate-warming carbon dioxide than clear-cut deforestation, the study published on Monday (August 5) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed.

The study, which used data obtained from airborne laser scanning of the Amazon region for a more precise accounting of the changes in the rainforest than satellite imagery provides, found that human-caused degradation and natural disturbances accounted for 83% of the carbon emissions, with 17% loss from deforestation.

The techniques used in the research give an unprecedented level of detail on forest degradation in the region of Brazil where destruction is most rampant, according to study lead author Ovidiu Csillik, a remote-sensing specialist at Wake Forest University in the United States.

Deforestation is easily detectable on normal satellite images, while degradation is more difficult, Csillik said.

The study supports the argument that the government under Lula may be overly focused on deforestation, scientists not involved in the study told Reuters.

Lula's office and the Environment Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. - Report from Reuters