The loss of the Amazon

As today is World Environment Day, The Brazilian Report is republishing a study by the Amazonian Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG), mapping the pressures and threats faced by the Amazon forest region. This is the third part of the series, focusing on deforestation. The other parts, covering transport infrastructure and extractive industries, can be found here and here.

The Pan-Amazonia region is suffering serious impacts. With investments in infrastructure, there is degradation of forest ecosystems as a consequence of deforestation. But this is not the only parameter. Non-forest ecosystems experience loss of endemic species, replacement of their original vegetation by invasive species or by species resistant to fire. Or again, there is impoverishment caused by the establishment of unnatural savanna ecosystems, resulting from changes in the ecological processes linked to alterations in hydrological systems.

Indigenous territories and protected natural areas remain the main barriers that guarantee the protection of forest ecosystems and the biological and cultural diversity found in these. In all, protected areas and indigenous territories represent 390 million hectares in the Amazon. This means that 46 percent of the 847 million hectares of Amazonian territory are occupied by protected natural areas or indigenous territories.

Deforestation in indigenous territories and protected areas remains small in absolute terms and is concentrated in critical regions. However, there is an accelerating trend of biodiversity loss. This process is accompanied by an increase in violence against indigenous peoples. As a recent investigation of 1,356 acts of threats and killings of Latin American environmental leaders showed, 56 percent of these episodes of violence (761 records) occurred against members of minorities, demonstrating that indigenous and Afro-descendant territories are especially vulnerable to such criminal action.

According to the latest RAISG maps, 10.3 million hectares of protected natural areas and indigenous territories were directly affected by deforestation between 2000 and 2015, amounting to 12 percent of the Amazon region.

The results are a warning for the protection of the biome, as highlighted by a study by Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre published in the journal Science in 2018. According to the authors, the sum of the impacts of deforestation, climate change and forest fires will lead to an inflection point (or point of no return) for the Amazonia system. That is, once deforestation reaches 20 to 25 percent of the biome there will be irreversible consequences for the non-forest ecosystems of southern and central Amazon. This model considered the Amazon basin without the inclusion of parts of the Orinoco, Araguaia and Tocantins basins and of the North Atlantic and coastal areas.

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