NASA Administrator Bill Nelson this Monday offered Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to help the country track deforestation in the Amazon with images from three new satellites due to launch soon.

“We are going to launch three new satellites that will add an extreme capability to understand what is happening and stop the destruction (of the Amazon),” Nelson said at a press conference, after noting that NASA is already sending “a lot of information” from its satellites to Brazilian scientists.

Nelson, who will also travel to Colombia and Argentina as part of a tour of the region, stressed that the hour-and-a-half talk with the president was “very productive” and thanked him “on behalf of all Earthlings for his efforts to save the Amazon.”

Brazil’s Science and Technology Minister Luciana Santos stated that the government is “ready” to cooperate in everything related to integrating technological advancements to combat deforestation, but claimed the resources Brazil already has.

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Santos confirmed that Brazilian scientists “will verify the needs” and that Brazil is facing the debates on reforestation with “a lot of calm”, having done its “homework” over time.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been reduced by 34% in the first half of 2023, the first six months of Lula’s government, which pledged to reduce the destruction of the world’s largest tropical forest to zero by 2030.

After the meeting in Brasilia, the head of NASA and the minister will travel to Sao Paulo on Tuesday to visit the National Institute for Space Research and the facilities of Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world.

“We want to observe (Nelson) our Brazilian aerospace industry; We have companies with the production capacity to supply NASA,” Santos assured.

At the meeting, NASA Administrator Lula provided a photo taken from space during the last mission sent to the moon by the North American agency.