Belém: Brazil's president has slashed deforestation in the Amazon and worked to better protect Indigenous people, giving him a generally positive environmental record as he prepares to host COP30 UN climate talks in a month.

However, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces a strong agribusiness lobby in congress that has tried to weaken environmental laws, and the president has enraged green activists with his support for the expansion of oil exploration.

The 79-year-old has returned to office after years of rampant Amazon deforestation under his climate-sceptic predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

"Brazil is back," he declared at COP27 in Egypt shortly after his re-election, receiving a rock star's welcome as he pledged to protect a rainforest with billions of carbon-absorbing trees that are a key buffer against global warming.

He announced plans to host COP30 in the Amazon itself so world leaders could get a first-hand look at one of Earth's richest ecosystems.

Another strong message was Lula's choice of environment minister, Marina Silva -- who cut deforestation dramatically during his first term.

The pair have previously feuded over the clash between development goals and environmental protection.

They set about rebuilding Brazil's environmental agencies and Lula also reactivated the Amazon Fund, an international financing mechanism to protect the forest that had been suspended under Bolsonaro.

In the last year of Bolsonaro's presidency in 2022, deforestation reached more than 10,000 square kilometers (3861 square miles) -- an area about the size of the country of Lebanon.

This number had dropped by more than half by 2024, falling to 4,200 square kilometers.

However, in 2024, Brazil suffered one of its worst waves of forest fires on record. The flames, often linked to agricultural activity, grew out of control amid a historic drought linked to climate change.

Brazil's Climate Wins Ahead Of COP30