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 …
Bolivia has given the go ahead to a controversial highway which would cut through an Amazon biodiversity hotspot almost the size of Jamaica and home to 14,000 mostly indigenous people. President Evo Morales enacted the new law opening the way for the 190-mile (300km) road through the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous …
Mega-dam construction is booming around the world, with promoters hyping hydropower as a green, renewable source of energy and a means of curbing climate change. But as these dams are built in the Amazon, Mekong and elsewhere, they’re doing great environmental and social damage and their green credentials are no …
Pipelines, roads, railways and transmission lines cause severe habitat fragmentation in the Amazon rainforest. A new study looked at canopy connectivity for large arboreal mammal populations using natural bridges above a new gas pipeline in Peru. In 7,102 canopy camera trap nights, the crossing rate of natural bridges in the …
This study explores the potential links between specialization in cocoa exports and deforestation in developing nations through the lens of ecologically unequal exchange. Although chocolate production was once considered to have only minimal impacts on forests, recent reports suggest damaging trends due to increased demand and changing cultivation strategies. I …
Protected areas are a cornerstone strategy for terrestrial and increasingly marine biodiversity conservation, but their use for conserving inland waters has received comparatively scant attention. In 2010, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) included a target of 17% protection for inland waters, yet there has been no meaningful way of …
Brazilian dam, road and mine environmental impact assessments (EIAs) could be enhanced by satellite and DNA technology, improving biodiversity risk evaluations. Amazon infrastructure EIAs under-assess biodiversity; scientists offer solutions In a new paper, scientists assert that environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for major Brazilian Amazon infrastructure projects often fail in their …
A t the FrigoAmazonas slaughter house inside the world's largest rainforest, the owner doesn't mince his words - much of the cattle processed here comes from illegally deforested land. "It's impossible to buy cows from land that isn't deforested," Felipe Oliveira told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in his tatty office …
Oil companies planning to drill near a vast coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of an oil spill. 'We are rewriting the textbooks': first dives to Amazon coral reef stun scientists …
This report presents the mapping results of national and international REDD+ financial flows to Brazil from 2009 through 2016, and contains detailed analyses regarding new sources of finance flows that may impact REDD+ goals, including financial commitments to promote low-carbon agriculture and subnational case studies of the states of Amazonas …
Holding a plastic bottle of toxic mercury with his bare hands on an illegal gold mining barge in the Amazon basin, the 22-year-old miner says he is well aware of the dangers of the job. In shorts and sandals, he lights a blow torch, training a blue flame on a …
This report presents the first comprehensive overview of international trade in CITES-listed wildlife in the Amazon countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The analysis provides a baseline of information on trade levels and trends in these countries for the ten-year period 2005-2014, in order to inform …
Paris - Building the 428 hydroelectric dams proposed for Brazil's Amazon basin - three times the existing number - would devastate the environment and could even disrupt regional weather, an international team of researchers warned on Wednesday. Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists unveiled a Dam Environmental Vulnerability Index …
Though biodiversity and carbon storage have been linked in past forest research, a new study using Amazon, Congo and Borneo data found no consistent correlation. Tropical forest diversity and carbon richness not linked, study finds Scientists theorize that increased forest biodiversity also increases productivity (growth), and therefore carbon sequestration. But, …
French oil and gas company Total and other energy majors should abandon plans to drill close to the mouth of Brazil's Amazon because of potential risks to the ecosystem of the area, environmental campaigner Greenpeace said on Wednesday. Greenpeace said an analysis of Total's environmental assessment of its planned drilling, …
Small and medium-scale agriculture is responsible for 80 percent of the deforestation between 2001 and 2015. According to experts of the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) controlling the deforestation will be difficult because “it is everywhere and in small patches.” Peru lost more than 1 million hectares of …
Post-FARC development risks could render important eco-systems vulnerable in Colombia. Guaviare: Colombia’s frontline in the country’s battle to stop deforestation in the Amazon Almost 90 percent of the municipalities that have been deemed as needing special attention post-conflict are home to national parks, forest reserves, or have other environmental restrictions …
This time last year, scientists announced the discovery of a reef system at the mouth of the Amazon River — and right from the beginning, they began issuing warnings about companies’ plans to drill for oil in the region. Plans to drill for oil near newly discovered Amazon Reef alarm …
A large fraction of the organic carbon derived from land that is transported through inland waters is decomposed along river systems and emitted to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). The Amazon River outgasses nearly as much CO2 as the rainforest sequesters on an annual basis, representing ~25% of global …
Deforestation is still increasing exponentially in tropical regions. Some of the worst regions in the world are the Amazon rainforest, South East Asia and Central Africa. Between 2010 and 2015 there was an annual loss of 7.6 million ha of forest leading to changes in rainfall patterns, loss of biodiversity …
Solar systems to be deployed at 50 Amazon facilities worldwide in the next three years Amazon is to install solar panels at its warehouses and distribution centres around the world. The online retail giant said it was planning to install large-scale solar systems on the rooftops of over 15 “fulfilment” …
