Climate benefits of Amazon secondary forests—recent advances and research needs
A quarter of the deforested Amazon has regrown as secondary tropical forest and yet the climatic importance of these complex regenerating landscapes is only beginning to be recognised. Advances in satellite remote-sensing have transformed our ability to detect and...
The economic cost of the use of fire in the Amazon
The objective of this study is to investigate the cost of the use of fire in the Amazon. Burnings are commonplace in the Amazon production process and contribute towards the region’s agricultural expansion. Fire is used by farmers in the land preparation process...
Amazon drought and its implications for forest flammability and tree growth: a basin-wide analysis
Severe drought in moist tropical forests provokes large carbon emissions by increasing forest flammability and tree mortality, and by suppressing tree growth. The frequency and severity of drought in the tropics may increase through stronger El Niño Southern...
Simulating the response of land-cover changes to road paving and governance along a major Amazon highway: the Santarém–Cuiabá corridor
The spatial distribution of human activities in forest frontier regions is strongly influenced by transportation infrastructure. With the planned paving of 6000 km of highway in the Amazon Basin, agricultural frontier expansion will follow, triggering potentially...
Drought stress and carbon uptake in an Amazon forest measured with spaceborne imaging spectroscopy
Amazônia contains vast stores of carbon in high-diversity ecosystems, yet this region undergoes major changes in precipitation affecting land use, carbon dynamics, and climate. The extent and structural complexity of Amazon forests impedes ground studies of...
Managing the Amazon timber industry
Timber is a strategic resource in Amazon frontier development, providing 250,000 jobs and up to one-fourth of the region’s gross domestic product (Uhl et al. 1997; Veríssimo et al. 2002a, 2002b). Since the 1980s, timber sales have replaced government subsidies as...
As madeireiras e a conservação da fauna
A exploração de madeira na Amazônia ainda é predatória em muitas áreas, mas muitos empresários do setor vêm se beneficiando da ‘certificação’ do produto, ou seja, a comprovação por instituições idôneas do uso de técnicas de manejo que minimizam impactos ambientais. Para isso, é preciso atender a critérios econômicos, sociais e ambientais.