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 …
Only from the air is it possible to make out the scale of three illegal logging roads which have been carved into Peru’s eastern Amazon, while local authorities in the jungle Ucayali region seemingly turn a blind eye. Huddled in a twin-engine Cessna 402, the Guardian saw as many as …
You would think that deforestation eliminates bird's homes and inevitably reduces species' populations. However, according to a recent study, it's better to farm more intensively in some areas and leave more blocks untouched, in order to better preserve bird species richness. University of New Hampshire researchers discovered that crop rotation …
Most accurate count to date is over seven times higher than last estimate – but almost half have been cut down since the start of civilisation, say scientists Scientists have already calculated how many fish there are in the sea (230,000 species), and how many species there are on the …
Figures released this week point to an apparent rise in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the last year, an ominous development that one researcher attributed to an increase in cattle ranching aimed at the U.S. market. The newly lost forest, nearly 2,000 square miles, amounts to an area about …
Increasing global demand for food and the need to address climate change risk make it ever more urgent to both protect ecosystems and use land more productively and efficiently. Brazil is a key player in this context and has made significant gains in recent decades. Between 1970 and 2006, its …
We here demonstrate that we can resolve the seasonality of the hydrologic cycle in the Amazon using an approach, opposite to general circulation models, in which we resolve convection and parameterize large-scale circulation as a function of the resolved convection. The results emphasize the key role of cloud albedo feedback …
Across the tropics, there is a growing financial investment in activities that aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, such as REDD+. However, most tropical countries lack on-the-ground capacity to conduct reliable and replicable assessments of forest carbon stocks, undermining their ability to secure long-term carbon finance for …
Washington-based Center for Global Development has predicted that an India-sized piece of tropical forest could soon be gone if the current trend of deforestation continues. Using the data from satellite imagery, the researchers have further concluded that the complete elimination of 289 million hectares of tropical forest can take place …
Washington-based Center for Global Development predicts 289m hectares (714m acres) of tropical forests will be felled by 2050 based on current trends Tropical forests covering an area nearly the size of India are set to be destroyed in the next 35 years, a faster rate of deforestation than previously thought, …
After surveying 2,000 species of plants, birds, beetles, ants and bees across more than 300 diverse sites in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers say that deforestation has, without a doubt, caused a strong loss of biodiversity. They also say that setting aside a network of preserved forest may make it possible …
Germany and Brazil committed themselves on Thursday to a joint stance on climate change, putting the largest economies in Europe and Latin America on the same page ahead of global climate talks in Paris in December. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff focused mainly on environmental cooperation during …
Some half a million ants were recruited by the conservation organisation World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to call for the protection of the Amazon rainforest, ahead of a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Brazil. Working in collaboration with Cologne zoo in the west of Germany, messages of support such …
Many of the world’s plants are turning “alien”, spread by people into new areas where they choke out native vegetation in a worsening trend that causes billions of dollars in damage, scientists said on Wednesday. The invaders include water hyacinth from the Amazon, which has spread to about 50 nations …
Many of world’s frogs may be at risk of extinction, but something new always hops up in the amphibian world. In two separate journals in one afternoon, scientists have identified a brand new tree frog species high in the Peruvian cloud forest, while on the other side of the Andes, …
Government spies may have illegally targeted political and environmental opponents to president Rafael Correa’s plan to extract oil in Yasuni national park Ecuadorian spies may have broken the law by obtaining personal information on MPs, environmentalists, indigenous groups, human rights activists, academics and political opponents of president Rafael Correa who …
Over one million hectares, flora, fauna and people at risk from government failure to act The Sierra del Divisor region in the Peruvian Amazon was identified as a biodiversity conservation priority back in the early 1990s. More than 20 years later and Peruvians are still waiting - some more desperately …
EL PINO, Honduras — The jaguar roams jungles and riverbanks from the Amazon to Mexico, and even into the southwestern United States. It’s a powerful and cunning hunter, and a single cat’s territory can stretch hundreds of miles. The Aztecs called their most fearsome warriors “ocelotl” — jaguar soldiers. But …
Currently, little is known on how volcanic eruptions impact large-scale climate phenomena such as paleo-ITCZ position or South American summer monsoon behavior. In this paper, an analysis of observations and model simulations is employed to assess the influence of large volcanic eruptions on the climate of South America. This problem …
As countries build more hydropower projects, new research warns that massive dams pose an extinction threat to mammals, birds and tortoises—at least in the Amazon. Brazil’s Balbina Dam has turned what was once undisturbed forest into an artificial archipelago of 3,546 islands where many vertebrates have disappeared, according to a …
Mega hydropower projects in tropical forests pose a major emergent threat to terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Despite the unprecedented number of existing, under-construction and planned hydroelectric dams in lowland tropical forests, long-term effects on biodiversity have yet to be evaluated. We examine how medium and large-bodied assemblages of terrestrial …
