The new Brazilian gold rush: Is Amazonia at risk?

Diele‐Viegas, Luisa Maria; Pereira, Éder Johnson de Area Leão; Rocha, Carlos Frederico Duarte

doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102270

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Second, they are also two of the regions located along the “arc of deforestation” and therefore already suffer from the pressure of human-induced activities, such as deforestation, ranching, and extensive agriculture ( 16 , 75 , 76 ). Third, these regions, as well as the whole Amazon rainforest, are threatened by road infrastructure projects ( 77 , 78 ) and lack of or poorly enforced environmental policies ( 79 , 80 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent droughts increase risk of cascading tipping events by outpacing adaptive capacities in the Amazon rainforest

Wunderling

Staal

Sakschewski

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Tipping elements are nonlinear subsystems of the Earth system that have the potential to abruptly shift to another state if environmental change occurs close to a critical threshold with large consequences for human societies and ecosystems. Among these tipping elements may be the Amazon rainforest, which has been undergoing intensive anthropogenic activities and increasingly frequent droughts. Here, we assess how extreme deviations from climatological rainfall regimes may cause local forest collapse that cascades through the coupled forest–climate system. We develop a conceptual dynamic network model to isolate and uncover the role of atmospheric moisture recycling in such tipping cascades. We account for heterogeneity in critical thresholds of the forest caused by adaptation to local climatic conditions. Our results reveal that, despite this adaptation, a future climate characterized by permanent drought conditions could trigger a transition to an open canopy state particularly in the southern Amazon. The loss of atmospheric moisture recycling contributes to one-third of the tipping events. Thus, by exceeding local thresholds in forest adaptive capacity, local climate change impacts may propagate to other regions of the Amazon basin, causing a risk of forest shifts even in regions where critical thresholds have not been crossed locally.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent droughts increase risk of cascading tipping events by outpacing adaptive capacities in the Amazon rainforest

Wunderling

Staal

Sakschewski

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Although legally protected lands are essential for the conservation of Amazonian species, their integrity and effectiveness are at risk under the policies of the current government in Brazil (Pereira et al, 2019, 2020; Diele-Viegas et al, 2020; Paiva et al, 2020; Pelicice & Castello, 2021). Initiatives being promoted by the government and by politicians associated with agribusiness are weakening environmental regulations for controlling deforestation, resulting in a new wave of forest loss (Magnusson et al, 2018; Andrade et al, 2021; Mataveli et al, 2021; Ruaro et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using population surveys and models to reassess the conservation status of an endemic Amazonian titi monkey in a deforestation hotspot

Silva

Pacca²,

Lemos³

et al. 2022

Oryx

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Assessing the conservation status of species is essential for implementing appropriate conservation measures. A lack of evidence of threats, rather than showing an absence of impacts, could reflect a lack of studies on how human activities could result in species population declines. The range of Prince Bernhard's titi monkey Plecturocebus bernhardi is restricted to the Arc of Deforestation, a deforestation hotspot in south-eastern Amazonia. Despite this, it is categorized as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. To reassess the conservation status of P. bernhardi, we carried out surveys during 2015–2017 to delimit the geographical distribution of the species and estimate its population density and abundance. We then used spatial predictive modelling to examine future habitat and population loss within its range. Plecturocebus bernhardi occurs over an area of 131,295 km2. Its mean group size was 2.8 individuals/group and its density 10.8 individuals/km2 and 3.8 groups/km2. Habitat loss was estimated to be 58,365 km2 (32.3% of its current range) over the next 24 years (three P. bernhardi generations) under a conservative governance model of deforestation and 105,289 km2 (58.3%) under a business-as-usual model. These numbers indicate that P. bernhardi is threatened and should be categorized as Vulnerable, at least, using the IUCN Red List criteria. We recommend the reassessment of other Least Concern primate species from the Arc of Deforestation using a similar approach.

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“…The attempts of the current Brazilian administration to relax forest regulation, in addition to diminishing tree cover in the Amazon, lead to increased attention on how to introduce and maintain policy reforms for the preservation of Brazilian forests [ 67 ]. Interest has increased in topics such as opening indigenous lands to exploitation, reducing investment in forest watchdog agencies, exploring new areas without environmental licensing [ 7 , 68 ] and opening several areas located within important environmental protection areas in the Amazon to mining [ 8 , 10 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current Brazilian administration has always been vocal against environmental protections; it carried out a systematic dismantling of Brazilian environmental laws [7] and slashed Brazil's environment budget [8]. The government also encourages agribusiness in the Amazon [9] and illegal mining on indigenous lands [10], and it is not committed to the goals of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon [11]. This situation has created concern among researchers about the current status of the forest [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation in the Amazon rainforest and Google searches: A DCCA approach

Pereira

Ferreira²,

Lima³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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In this paper we analyze the descriptive statistics of the Google search volume for the terms related to the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (RENCA), a Brazilian mineral reserve in the Amazon of 4.6 million hectares, before and after the government signed the decree releasing it for exploration. First, we analyze the volume of searches for expressions related to RENCA in Google Trends using descriptive statistics; second, we assess the cross-correlation coefficient ρDCCA, which measures the cross-correlation between two nonstationary time series across different time scales. After the government announced the release of the RENCA reserve, there was an increase in the average volume of Google searches for related terms, showing people’s concern about the announcement. By using the cross-correlation coefficient ρDCCA, we identify strong cross-correlations between the different expressions related to RENCA in Google Trends. Our work shows the utility of Google Trends as an indicator of the perception of environmental policies. Additionally, we show that ρDCCA can be used as a tool to measure the cross-correlation between synonyms extracted from Google Trends for various time scales.

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The new Brazilian gold rush: Is Amazonia at risk?

Cited by 12 publications

References 44 publications

Recurrent droughts increase risk of cascading tipping events by outpacing adaptive capacities in the Amazon rainforest

Recurrent droughts increase risk of cascading tipping events by outpacing adaptive capacities in the Amazon rainforest

Using population surveys and models to reassess the conservation status of an endemic Amazonian titi monkey in a deforestation hotspot

Conservation in the Amazon rainforest and Google searches: A DCCA approach

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