Amazon Rainforest & Deforestation Watch Thread

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Amazon Mammals Threatened by Climate Change
February 15, 2023

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) From jaguars and ocelots to anteaters and capybara, most land-based mammals living in the Brazilian Amazon are threatened by climate change and the projected savannization of the region. That’s according to a study published in the journal Animal Conservation by the University of California, Davis.

[Leia esse artigo em português: https://ucdavis.app.box.com/s/bmgyw8s5 ... 0i3a1ls1zx]

The study found that even animals that use both forest and savanna habitats, such as pumas and giant armadillos, are vulnerable to such changes. It also illustrates how species and lands protected through local conservation efforts are not immune to global climate change.

“We’re losing Amazon forest as we speak,” said lead author Daniel Rocha, who conducted the research as a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “The Amazon’s biodiversity is very susceptible to climate change effects. It’s not just local; it’s a global phenomenon. We cannot stop this just by law enforcement, for example. These species are more susceptible than we realized, and even protected areas can’t protect them as much as we thought.”

What is ‘savannization?’

Pristine savanna is a unique biome that supports a diverse array of life. But “savannization” here refers to when lush rainforest gives way to a drier, open landscape that resembles savanna but is actually degraded forest. Local deforestation and global climate changes in temperature and precipitation favor this conversion along the southern and eastern edges of the Brazilian Amazon.

Read more of the EurekAlert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/979770

Read a presentation of the results of the study as published ZSL publications here: https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary. ... 2853?af=R

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Indigenous youths use tech as 'weapon' to protect Amazon

MAY 5, 2023

Her grandfather defended native lands in the Brazilian Amazon with bows and arrows. Today, the weapon of choice for Txai Surui and many young Indigenous activists like her is technology.

The 26-year-old Brazilian is one of the stars of Web Summit Rio, the world's biggest annual technology conference, which was held for the first time outside Europe this week, gathering more than 20,000 entrepreneurs and investors in Brazil.

"Today, technology is like a weapon for us... We use technology and ancestral knowledge as a form of resistance, to protect our land" against illegal logging and mining, Txai told AFP on the sidelines of the conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Using video cameras, drones, GPS, cell phones and social networks, a group of young people from her community monitors land invasions, using an application to report them, says Txai, who stands out in the high-tech conference venue with her feather headdress and traditional face paint.

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-indigenou ... mazon.html

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Secret Behind Amazonian 'Dark Earth' Could Help Speed Up Forest Restoration Across the Globe
May 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Between approximately 450 BCE and 950 CE, millions of Amerindian people living in today’s Amazonia transformed the originally poor soil through various processes. Over many human generations, soils were enriched with charcoal from their low-intensity fires for cooking and burning refuse, animal bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure. The result is Amazonian dark earth (ADE) or terra preta, exceptionally fertile because rich in nutrients and stable organic matter derived from charcoal, which gives it its black color.

Now, scientists from Brazil show that ADE could be a ‘secret weapon’ to boost reforestation – not only in the Amazon, where 18% or approximately 780,000 km2 has been lost since the 1970s – but around the world. The results are published in Frontiers in Soil Science.

“Here we show that the use of ADEs can enhance the growth of pasture and trees due to their high levels of nutrients, as well as to the presence of beneficial bacteria and archaea in the soil microbial community,” said joint lead author Luís Felipe Zagatto, a graduate student at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture of São Paulo University, Brazil.

“This means that knowledge of the ‘ingredients’ that make ADEs so very fertile could be applied to help speed up ecological restoration projects.”
Mimicking reforestation in miniature.

The researchers conducted controlled experiments to mimic the ecological succession and changes to the soil that happen when pasture in deforested areas is actively restored to forest. Their aim was to study how ADEs, or ultimately soils of which the microbiome has been artificially composed to imitate them, can boost this process.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/988029

For the article in Frontiers in Soil Science: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 27/full

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Amazon Deforestation Down 40 Percent So Far This Year

May 12, 2023

So far this year, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down 40 percent from the same period in 2022, according to government data. The drop comes as a win for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has promised to curb forest less.

In April alone, deforestation was down 68 percent from last year. The region saw 127 square miles (329 square kilometers) of forest destroyed, running below the historical April average of 176 square miles (456 square kilometers), Reuters reports.

It is unclear, however, if the downward trend will continue into late summer, when forest loss typically peaks. “The numbers are at a very high level, and the dry season, which is favorable to deforestation, has not yet started,” Mariana Napolitano of WWF-Brazil, said in a statement.

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/amazon-def ... -down-2023



Neil Palmer / CIAT via Flickr

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Amazon Deforestation Down 40 Percent So Far This Year

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https://e360.yale.edu/digest/amazon-def ... -down-2023

More on that by Kenny Stancil at Common Dreams

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) The finding reflects positively on the administration of leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to make the destruction of the crucial ecosystem "a thing of the past."
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Parts of the Amazon, often referred to as the "lungs of the Earth" due to its unparalleled capacity to provide oxygen and absorb planet-heating carbon dioxide, recently passed a key tipping point after Bolsonaro intensified clearcutting of the tropical rainforest during his four-year reign. Bolsonaro's regressive policy changes pushed deforestation in Brazil to a 15-year high last year, helping to drive the country's greenhouse gas emissions to their highest level in almost two decades.
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Lula has taken important steps toward fulfilling his pledge to halt deforestation by 2030, though Reuters reported that the president "has faced continued challenges since taking office as [the] environmental agency IBAMA grapples with lack of staff," one lingering consequence of his predecessor's funding cuts.
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Earlier this month, Lula secured "an 80 million-pound ($100.97 million) contribution from Britain to the Amazon Fund, an initiative aimed at fighting deforestation also backed by Norway, Germany, and the United States," Reuters noted. Last month, he "resumed the recognition of Indigenous lands, reversing a Bolsonaro policy, while announcing new job openings at the environment ministry and [the] Indigenous agency FUNAI."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/braz ... pril-2023

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Amazon deforestation down by a third in 2023, says Brazilian government

2 hours ago

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell by 33.6% in the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's term compared with the same period in 2022, the government says.

Its suggests the rainforest shrank by 2,649 sq km this January-June, down from 3,988 sq km in those six months last year under President Bolsonaro.

The released government satellite data has not been independently verified.

Lula has pledged to end deforestation, or forest clearance, by 2030.

But he faces a huge challenge to achieve this target, as the area of rainforest still reported to be lost under his rule is more than three times the size of New York City.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66129200

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Amazon deforestation down by a third in 2023, says Brazilian government

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66129200

More on that from Mother Jones:

Extract:

Lula’s administration has attempted to thwart illegal logging by seizing illegally raised cattle and imposing financial sanctions on forest-destroying landowners. But some loggers and cattle ranchers are still chopping away at the erstwhile carbon sink. Experts say that to end deforestation Brazil will need to reorient its economy away from cattle farming, which requires land to graze, and toward goods like acai and the fish pirarucu. That will be a big transformation, but putting a dent in the rate of rainforest loss is a solid start.

Last month, Lula announced his plan for Brazil to end illegal deforestation by 2030, three years after the end of his term. For the plan to work, a like-minded individual would have to succeed Lula—and, as The New Republic reported, Lula might have to make some environmental concessions to promote the country’s economic interests and stave off a right-wing resurgence. For now, the Amazon is gearing up for a severe fire season, and deforestation continues, albeit at a slower rate than before.

Source: https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... -a-third/

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