- Extreme weather events affect 1.8 million people in the Brazilian Amazon every year; traditional and indigenous populations are 75% of those most affected
- Related economic losses total U$ 650 million per year and U$ 5.7 billion from 2000 to 2022; agriculture, livestock, health and infrastructure are the most affected areas
- There were 4,792 extreme weather events recorded in the region from 2000 to 2022; in this period, the frequency of fires increased 10-fold; floods, 5-fold; droughts and heat waves, 3-fold
More than 1.8 million people suffer from extreme weather events every year in the Brazilian Amazon, according to a study published on Thursday 13th in the scientific journal Nature Communications. Indigenous people and traditional communities account for 75% of the affected population.
The research is one of the first to address the losses and damages in the Brazilian portion of the biome in an integrated manner, highlighting the social perspective among the areas impacted by the effects of climate change.
The new data highlights that climate-related losses in the region amount to more than 650 million dollars a year and reach 5.7 billion dollars if the period from 2000 to 2022 is considered. According to scientists, Amazonian cities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants are suffering the most.
“Climate change is multiplying poverty in the Amazon. Our data shows that the smallest municipalities – where most indigenous peoples live – are losing almost 10% of their economic growth because of climate disasters. This is the portrait of a silent and unequal crisis that demands urgent responses based on justice,” says Patrícia Pinho, deputy director of research at IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) and one of the authors.
According to the study, economic losses in the region due to climate extremes grew by 370% between 2000 and 2022. The sectors most affected are agriculture, livestock, infrastructure and health services.
The research highlights the occurrence of 4,792 climatic disasters in the Brazilian Amazon over the entire period analyzed – also considering that the frequency of fires increased 10-fold; floods, 5-fold; droughts and heat waves, 3-fold.
Climate variation, in a cycle created and fed back by human activities, also poses risks to food and nutritional security. For the researcher, this means that the impacts on agriculture are underestimated.
Residual losses, as the article classifies them, are taken into account when calculating impacts, such as the loss of territory and well-being. The subjective human dimension includes the fact that individuals no longer identify with their surroundings, either because the locality has been destroyed and/or has lost its ability to function, or because of the loss of loved ones.
“Children subjected to disasters start life at an imposed disadvantage, starting with deficits in health, nutrition, development and socialization. There are serious risks of cultural erosion and an increase in forced migration in Brazil, and especially in the Amazon, because extreme climatic events are occurring more frequently, more intensely and in a compounded way; people are losing the ability to adapt,” adds Pinho.
The study indicates that it is not enough to recognize inequalities: there must be collaboration with distributive justice and social and technological support for those affected by climate extremes.
The main recommendation is the creation of a specific loss and damage fund for the Amazon, following the example of the global loss and damage fund resulting from COP27, which provides for the allocation of resources by rich countries, historical emitters, to poor, island or developing countries, which have contributed little to global overheating and yet face the greatest impacts.
“Creating a loss and damage fund for the Amazon, especially non-material and economic losses, such as losses to health, way of life and culture, in the way advocated by Article 8 of the Paris Agreement, would help improve the response of Amazonian cities that are at high risk. If the Amazon is in the eyes of the world, we should be able to direct support towards protecting the forest and biodiversity, yes, but also towards maintaining people’s lives,” she concludes.
Cover photo: A craftsman assembles a basket in the Rio Negro basin region (Carlos Durigan/IPAM)