Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva stepped down from her post Wednesday (Apr. 1). This was her third term in the position, all appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Like other ministers, she is leaving office to run in the upcoming October elections.

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The minister took stock of her 39-month tenure, from January 1, 2023, to April 1, 2026. In her speech, she addressed Brazil’s return to leadership on the global environmental agenda, presented data on the reduction of deforestation in threatened biomes, and discussed the ministry’s institutional recovery.

“When we arrived, in January 2023, we found an organization that needed to be rebuilt in terms of its political, ethical, technical, administrative, and operational capacity. Since then, we have revitalized Brazil’s environmental governance by adding more than 1,557 staff members to the ministry’s system,” she declared.

During this period, she said, the ministry’s annual budget more than doubled – growing by 120 percent, from BRL 865 million in 2022 to BRL 1.9 billion in 2025. “Institutional reconstruction means people, budget, governance, and execution capacity,” she added.

The budget increase and the recovery of the ministry and its affiliated agencies have yielded results, she argued.

“In 2025, compared to 2022, deforestation fell by 50 percent in the Amazon and 32.3 percent in the cerrado, preventing the emission of 733.9 million tons of CO₂ equivalent. In the most recent cycle of alerts, from August 2025 to February 2026, there was a further reduction of 33 percent in the Amazon and seven percent in the cerrado.”

“If we continue at this pace, even during such a challenging period, we stand to achieve the lowest rate on record,” she said.

With expanded teams and increased financial resources, greater action was taken in the most threatened areas. From 2022 to 2025, Brazil had 3.4 million hectares undergoing native vegetation restoration. The minister also reported that, in the same comparison, the area covered by illegal mining in the Amazon was reduced by 50 percent.

In addition to providing an accountability report and presenting results, the address marked the handover of the ministry’s helm to João Paulo Ribeiro Capobianco, the ministry’s current executive secretary. The appointment, Minister Marina Silva said, will ensure “the continuity of the policies adopted by President Lula’s administration in recent years.”

She said she views “political action as a service” and stated that she is “neither optimistic nor pessimistic,” but “persistent.”

In her view, “there is no civilization if denialism prevails. If it prevails, perhaps there won’t even be a planet.”