Sustainably managing the Amazon region is essential to mitigating global climate change and to preserving the biological and cultural diversity of the region. After promising reductions in degradation in the 2010s, a return to historically high levels of land conversion and deforestation during the past 5 years has severely undermined these goals. This land conversion — primarily the result of logging, mining and ranching — has generated social, economic and environmental burdens across scales1. Encouragingly, signs of recovery towards Amazon protection are appearing under Brazil’s current federal administration. But amid the drop in deforestation, a new threat is on the rise: uncontrolled fires.
Solving Brazil’s land use puzzle: Increasing production and slowing Amazon deforestation
Solving Brazil’s land use puzzle: Increasing production and slowing Amazon deforestation
Brazil has become an agricultural powerhouse, producing roughly 30 % of the world’s soy and 15 % of its beef by 2013 – yet historically much of that growth has come at the expense of its native ecosystems. Since 1985, pastures and croplands have replaced nearly 65...