The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said it had tracked deforestation over 80.95 square kilometers (31.25 square miles) -- the lowest for a month of February since the system was launched in 2016.

The figure was 64 percent lower than in February 2024.

Tree logging in February also dropped by a quarter in Brazil's Cerrado, the most species-rich savanna in the world, though the figure remained high with 494 square kilometers lost, the data showed.

Destruction of the world's forests, which play a key role in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide, contributes to global warming.

Over the last century, the Amazon rainforest -- which covers nearly 40 percent of South America -- has lost about 20 percent of its area to land clearing for agriculture, logging, mining and urban sprawl.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, host of the COP30 UN climate conference to be held in November in the Amazonian city of Belem, has committed to eradicating illegal deforestation by 2030.

It has already been reduced significantly since Lula returned to power in 2023, having surged under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

According to INPE figures, deforestation halved in 2023.

The latest data does not take into account forest loss due to fires, with 30.8 million hectares lost in Brazil last year -- a surface area larger than Italy.

The loss was 79 percent more than in 2023, according to the MapBiomas monitoring platform, and the worst since 2019.

According to INPE data, more than 140,000 fire hotspots were registered in the Brazilian Amazon in 2024 -- a number not seen in 17 years and a 42-percent increase on 2023.

Brazil experienced a historic drought last year that experts have linked to climate change and the El Nino warming phenomenon.

Parched lands provided fuel for fires caused mainly by human activities, according to authorities.