Nico Wunderling

The Amazon can be saved — with concerted action inside and outside Brazil

During the first term of president Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva in 2003–11, the Brazilian administration slashed deforestation rates in the Amazon, all but eliminating the large-scale conversion of rainforest into cattle pasture and soya plantations. There’s a lesson here for other world leaders: with eyes in space and law enforcement on the ground, governments can help to tame seemingly insatiable market forces, even across one of the planet’s largest agricultural frontiers. Lula, who has...