This publication shows that carbon prices exceeding US$ 20 per ton of CO2 captured by the natural regeneration of deforested areas in the Amazon would be truly transformative for the region’s landscape. Offsets for captured carbon would ensure forest integrity, inducing extensive forest restoration and the capture of 16 Gt …
Brazilian agriculture covers about one-third of the land area and is expected to expand further. We assessed the compliance of present Brazilian agriculture with environmental legislation and identified challenges for agricultural development connected to this legislation.
Protected areas (PAs) now shelter 54% of the remaining forests of the Brazilian Amazon and contain 56% of its forest carbon. However, the role of these PAs in reducing carbon fluxes to the atmosphere from deforestation and their associated costs are still uncertain. To fill this gap, we analyzed the …
Footage>> Pollution • Ecuador/USA Nearly 200 filmmakers from all over the world have signed a petition protesting an American court’s strictures against the director of the critically-acclaimed documentary, Crude: The Real Price of Oil . On May 15 a New York court ordered director Joe Berlinger to hand over unused …
The jaraquis (Semaprochilodus spp.) are the most abundant group in the fishing landing in Manaus. However, just command and control management strategies have been used by the fishery governmental agency in the region without the power to enforce centralized decisions. The fishermen and their culture represent a source of information …
Two payment for environmental services programs in the Amazon, namely, Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project in Bolivia and Bolsa Floresta Program in Brazil, have been pioneering initiatives to demonstrate the ability to encourage forest conservation through market mechanisms involving direct payments for avoiding deforestation. This article argues that (a) …
In this file photo, a forest in the Amazon is seen being illegally burnt, near Novo Progresso, in the northern Brazilian state of Para. Farmers burn the Amazon forest to make it easier to clean big areas that will be turned into grazing lands. AP. APIn this file photo, a …
The scale and nature of pre-Columbian human impacts in Amazonia are currently hotly debated. Whereas pre-Columbian people dramatically changed the distribution and abundance of species and habitats in some parts of Amazonia, their impact in other parts is less clear. Pioneer research asked whether their effects reached even further, changing …
A decades-long tug of war between environmental and indigenous groups on one hand and the Brazilian government on the other came to a close yesterday when a Brazilian energy consortium won the right to build what will become the world's third-largest dam. The controversial Belo Monte dam on the Xingu …
Forest clearing and degradation account for roughly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the cars, trains, planes, ships, and trucks on earth. This is simply too big a piece of the problem to ignore; fail to reduce it and we will fail to stabilize our climate. Although …
The sensitivity of Amazon rainforests to dry?season droughts is still poorly understood, with reports of enhanced tree mortality and forest fires on one hand, and excessive forest greening on the other. Here, we report that the previous results of large?scale greening of the Amazon, obtained from an earlier version of …
A drought that happens once in a hundred years had little negative or positive effect on the Amazon rainforest according to this study led by Arindam Samanta from Boston University. Its results are different from 2007 IPCC report which stated that 40 percent of the Amazon rainforest was threatened by …
CREDIBILITY issues continue to dog the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The UN climate change body is now being charged that its claim on disappearing Amazonian forests is based on a report by environmental activists while that on disappearing ice from the world
The threats facing Ecuador's Yasuní National Park are emblematic of those confronting the greater western Amazon, one of the world's last high-biodiversity wilderness areas. Notably, the country's second largest untapped oil reserves—called “ITT”—lie beneath an intact, remote section of the park. The conservation significance of Yasuní may weigh heavily in …
This UN report leaked from the Copenhagen climate talks suggests that global temperature will rise by an average of 3 degree celsius even if all the emission cuts offered so far are implemented. Is based on the most recent emission scenarios presented in the IEA 2009 World Energy Outlook and …
Opportunities to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), especially in developing countries, have risen to the top of the international climate policy agenda, attracting increasing attention and investment from environmental organizations, development assistance agencies and the business community. Deforestation is one of the largest …
The true costs of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Project, planned for the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, will be much higher than dam proponents admit, according to a new independent review by a panel of 40 specialists. The panel found that the dam would have serious consequences for the …
No matter how many times you hear them, there are some statistics that just bowl you over. The one that always stuns me is this: Imagine if you took all the cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships in the world and added up their exhaust every year. The amount of …
