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 …
The international research project ForLive, analysing experiences in the Amazon, revealed that considerable external resources are needed to overcome the technical, legal and financial barriers inherent in the current community forestry framework.
Following a recent announcement at the un climate meeting in Bali, the Brazilian government has approved a bill that aims to monitor and prevent deforestation in the Amazon rainforests. The measure requires property owners to re-register their holdings in the Amazon, failing which they will not be eligible for government …
A midst oppositions from environmental groups, the Inter-American Development Bank has approved a us $400-million loan for the construction of a liquefied natural gas (lng) project in Peru. The project will be the country's first lng export facility. Camisea field is an important gas reserve in South America that Peru …
The Peruvian government has allowed two oil companies to explore oil in remote parts of the Amazonian forests inhabited by uncontacted tribes. The decision comes after a Peruvian government spokesperson suggested these tribes do not exist, claiming there was "no firm proof' of their existence. The move is despite the …
The forest biome of Amazonia is one of Earth's greatest biological treasures and a major component of the Earth system. This century, it faces the dual threats of deforestation and stress from climate change. In this article, the authors summarize some of the latest findings and thinking on these threats, …
Agricultural expansion, opening of new roads and migration of people to unexploited areas are all major causes of Amazon deforestation; thus many sectors share the responsibility for reversing it.
A five-metre minke whale strayed 1,600 km from the Atlantic Ocean and ran aground on a sandbank in the Amazon jungle's Tapajos river on November 13. Though it was spotted and freed, it did not survive. According to Brazil's environmental regulator, Ibama, local residents first spotted the whale beached on …
The United States is the world's leading producer of soy. However many U.S. farmers are shifting from soy to corn in order to qualify for generous government subsidies intended to promote biofuel production. The rising price for soy has important consequences for Amazonian forests and savanna woodlands. (Letters)
The river Amazon, not the Nile, is the world's longest river, claims a group of Brazilian scientists. Scientists from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics have recently traced the Amazon's source to a snow-capped mountain in southern Peru. The Amazon, though the world's largest river by volume, is believed …
The Ecuadorian government has decided not to tap a major oil field in the Amazonian rainforest, and asked the international community to compensate it for the sacrifice. The government's demand is in response to opposition by environmental and indigenous groups against oil development in the rainforest's Yasuni National Park. In …
Brazil's Catholic bishops have condemned the government for its failure to address deforestation in the Amazon. The government was "absent' in combating "predatory development' in the world's largest rainforests, notes a media statement issued by the Brazilian National Bishops' Council. Concerned over the increasing soybean farming in the region, the …
Many species of trees in the Amazon rainforests, and animals that depend on them are disappearing more rapidly than previously thought, an international research team reported recently. Led by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the research team has been studying nearly 32,000 Amazonian trees for …
Argentina's biggest oil facility and natural gas producer Pluspetrol has come to a standstill following protests by the indigenous Achuar groups in Peru, who say that crude production is contaminating their environment and damaging their health. At least 700 people took over three oil wells of Pluspetrol in the second …
Since the energy shortage in 2001, there has been renewed interest in energy-generation projects in Brazil. Policy options under consideration include expansion of natural gas exploration and hydropower generation in the Amazon. This article analyzes environmental opposition to two projects, the Urucu pipeline and the Belo Monte Dam. Despite significant …
Bowing to pressure from consumer and environmental groups, Brazilian soy traders have stopped buying soybeans grown in the Amazon basin for the time being. The move is an effort to preserve the world's largest rainforests, the Amazon. The moratorium will continue for two years and apply to soybeans planted in …
In this paper I address the general perception that agricultural activities are the principal threat to primate biodiversity in the tropics and argue that in Neotropical landscapes some agricultural practices may favor primate population persistence, and that this situation merits attention and investigation. To explore these issues, I examined three …
About 80 members of the remote Nukak-Maku tribe of Colombia recently wandered out of the Amazon forests and set up camp in the southern part of the country, declaring themselves ready to join the modern world. "While it is not known for sure why they left the jungle, what is …
Two recent studies conducted in the Amazon basin show deforestation increases malaria risk. In the first, researchers from Peru and the US found the population of Anopheles darlingi the major malaria vector in the Amazon basin was 200 times higher and frequency of biting 278 times higher in deforested locations …
biodiversity-rich Amazon is more like a desert when it comes to soil microbes, while an arid desert is a teeming microbial Amazon, two us researchers have found. Noah Fierer and Robert Jackson of Duke University studied the diversity of soil bacteria in 98 locations in South and North America and …
