Monitoring of Forest Degradation: A Review of Methods in the Amazon Basin

2016 ◽  
pp. 171-194
Author(s):  
Carlos Souza Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Degradation

Conservation in the Amazon: Evolution and Situation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Dourojeanni
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
South American Population ◽  
Road Building ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Resources Exploitation

In 1945 the Amazon biome was almost intact. Marks of ancient cultural developments in Andean and lowland Amazon had cicatrized and the impacts of rubber and more recent resources exploitation were reversible. Very few roads existed, and only on the Amazon’s periphery. However, from the 1950s, but especially in the 1960s, Brazil and some Andean countries launched ambitious road-building and colonization processes. Amazon occupation heavily intensified in the 1970s when forest losses began to raise worldwide concern. More roads continued to be built at a geometrically growing pace in every following decade, multiplying correlated deforestation and forest degradation. A no-return point was reached when interoceanic roads crossed the Brazilian-Andean border in the 2000s, exposing remaining safe havens for indigenous people and nature. It is commonly estimated that today no less than 18% of the forest has been substituted by agriculture and that over 60% of that remaining has been significantly degraded. Theories regarding the importance of biogeochemical cycles have been developed since the 1970s. The confirmation of the role of the Amazon as a carbon sink added some international pressure for its protection. But, in general, the many scientific discoveries regarding the Amazon have not helped to improve its conservation. Instead, a combination of new agricultural technologies, anthropocentric philosophies, and economic changes strongly promoted forest clearing. Since the 1980s and as of today Amazon conservation efforts have been increasingly diversified, covering five theoretically complementary strategies: (a) more, larger, and better-managed protected areas; (b) more and larger indigenous territories; (c) a series of “sustainable-use” options such as “community-based conservation,” sustainable forestry, and agroforestry; (d) financing of conservation through debt swaps and climate change’s related financial mechanisms; and (e) better legislation and monitoring. Only five small protected areas have existed in the Amazon since the early 1960s but, responding to the road-building boom of the 1970s, several larger patches aiming at conserving viable samples of biological diversity were set aside, principally in Brazil and Peru. Today around 22% of the Amazon is protected but almost half of such areas correspond to categories that allow human presence and resources exploitation, and there is no effective management. Another 28% or more pertains to indigenous people who may or may not conserve the forest. Both types of areas together cover over 45% of the Amazon. None of the strategies, either alone or in conjunction, have fully achieved their objectives, while development pressures and threats multiply as roads and deforestation continue relentlessly, with increasing funding by multilateral and national banks and due to the influence of transnational enterprises. The future is likely to see unprecedented agriculture expansion and corresponding intensification of deforestation and forest degradation even in protected areas and indigenous land. Additionally, the upper portion of the Amazon basin will be impacted by new, larger hydraulic works. Mining, formal as well as illegal, will increase and spread. Policymakers of Amazon countries still view the region as an area in which to expand conventional development while the South American population continues to be mostly indifferent to Amazon conservation.

scholarly journals The role of forest conversion, degradation, and disturbance in the carbon dynamics of Amazon indigenous territories and protected areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 3015-3025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne S. Walker ◽  
Seth R. Gorelik ◽  
Alessandro Baccini ◽  
Jose Luis Aragon-Osejo ◽  
Carmen Josse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Forest Conversion ◽  
Carbon Density ◽  
Aboveground Carbon ◽  
Indigenous Territories

Maintaining the abundance of carbon stored aboveground in Amazon forests is central to any comprehensive climate stabilization strategy. Growing evidence points to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) as buffers against large-scale carbon emissions across a nine-nation network of indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs). Previous studies have demonstrated a link between indigenous land management and avoided deforestation, yet few have accounted for forest degradation and natural disturbances—processes that occur without forest clearing but are increasingly important drivers of biomass loss. Here we provide a comprehensive accounting of aboveground carbon dynamics inside and outside Amazon protected lands. Using published data on changes in aboveground carbon density and forest cover, we track gains and losses in carbon density from forest conversion and degradation/disturbance. We find that ITs and PNAs stored more than one-half (58%; 41,991 MtC) of the region’s carbon in 2016 but were responsible for just 10% (−130 MtC) of the net change (−1,290 MtC). Nevertheless, nearly one-half billion tons of carbon were lost from both ITs and PNAs (−434 MtC and −423 MtC, respectively), with degradation/disturbance accounting for >75% of the losses in 7 countries. With deforestation increasing, and degradation/disturbance a neglected but significant source of region-wide emissions (47%), our results suggest that sustained support for IPLC stewardship of Amazon forests is critical. IPLCs provide a global environmental service that merits increased political protection and financial support, particularly if Amazon Basin countries are to achieve their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.

scholarly journals A floristic survey of angiosperm species occurring at three landscapes of the Central Amazon várzea, Brazil

Check List ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Garcia Luize ◽  
Eduardo Martins Venticinque ◽  
Thiago Sanna Freire Silva ◽  
Evlyn Marcia Leão de Moraes Novo
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Floodplain Forests ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Floristic Survey ◽  
Central Amazon ◽  
Botanical Knowledge ◽  
Degradation Rates ◽  
Floods And Droughts ◽  
Angiosperm Species

The Amazonian floodplains harbor highly diverse wetland forests, with angiosperms adapted to survive extreme floods and droughts. About 14% of the Amazon Basin is covered by floodplains, which are fundamental to river productivity, biogeochemical cycling and trophic flow, and have been subject to human occupation since Pre-Colombian times. The botanical knowledge about these forests is still incomplete, and current forest degradation rates are much higher than the rate of new botanical surveys. Herein we report the results of three years of botanical surveys in floodplain forests of the Central Amazon. This checklist contains 432 tree species comprising 193 genera and 57 families. The most represented families are Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Sapotaceae, Annonaceae, and Moraceae representing 53% of the identified species. This checklist also documents the occurrence of approximately 236 species that have been rarely recorded as occurring in white-water floodplain forests.

Conservation payments to reduce tropical deforestation and degradation : evidence from the Ecuadorian Andes to the Amazon basin

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Phillip Mohebalian
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Environmental Services ◽  
Forest Owner ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Resource Managers

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Payment for Environmental Services (PES) are market-based policy instruments. Which compensate private resource managers financially for the environmental services their forests provide. As forest PES policies are increasingly implemented; further research is needed to quantify their environmental benefits and to strategize their improved efficiency. This dissertation evaluates PES policy outcomes from a quantitative analysis within the specific case study of Ecuador's Socio Bosque Program (Span.: Programa Socio Bosque-PSB). The PSB is a national forest PES program instituted in 2008. The dissertation aims to bridge the gap in knowledge regarding the role of PES policies in preventing deforestation and forest degradation. It approaches this aim by presenting methods which integrate and analyze data in a way which progresses the science of conservation policy evaluation. Ultimately, the insights provided advance the science of conservation policy thereby preventing the needless degradation and loss of forest ecosystems. The specific objectives of the overall dissertation are to: (1) better understand the relationship between variations in the structure PES contracts and forest owner enrollment, and (2) go beyond measuring the effect of conservation payments in preventing deforestation to estimate their effect in preventing forest degradation.

Amazonia revealed: forest degradation and loss of ecosystem goods and services in the Amazon Basin

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Foley ◽  
Gregory P. Asner ◽  
Marcos Heil Costa ◽  
Michael T. Coe ◽  
Ruth DeFries ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Ecosystem Goods And Services ◽  
Goods And Services

scholarly journals Changing patterns of fire occurrence in proximity to forest edges, roads and rivers between NW Amazonian countries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolors Armenteras ◽  
Joan Sebastian Barreto ◽  
Karyn Tabor ◽  
Roberto Molowny ◽  
Javier Retana
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fragmentation ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Forest Edge ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
The North ◽  
Active Fire ◽  
Spatial Differences

Abstract. Tropical forests in NW Amazonia are highly threatened by the expansion of the agricultural frontier and subsequent deforestation. Fire is used, both directly and indirectly, in the Brazilian Amazon to propagate deforestation and increase forest accessibility. Forest fragmentation, a measure of forest degradation, is also attributed to fire occurrence in the tropics. However, outside the Legal Amazonia the role of fire in increasing accessibility and forest fragmentation is less explored. In this study, we compared in five countries sharing this tropical biome in the most North Western part of the Amazon Basin (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil). We analysed spatial differences in the timing of peak fire activity and in relation to proximity to roads and rivers using 15 years of MODIS active fire detections. We also distinguished patterns of fire in relation to forest fragmentation by analysing fire distance to the forest edge as a measure of fragmentation for each country. We found significant hemispheric differences in peak fire occurrence with the highest number of fires in the South in 2005 vs. 2007 in the North. we also found difference in peak fire occurrence by country with fire peak in Colombia and Venezuela in February; peak fire in September for Brazil and Peru; and Ecuador presented two fire peaks. We confirmed the relationship between fires and forest fragmentation for all countries; and also found significant differences in the distance of fire to forest edge for each country. These results can inform land use planning at the regional, national and sub-national scale to minimize how road expansion and subsequent access to the amazonian natural resources contribute to fire occurrence, and the associated deforestation and carbon emissions.

scholarly journals Determining a Threshold to Delimit the Amazonian Forests from the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 GFC Data

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (22) ◽  
pp. 5020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaio Allan Cruz Gasparini ◽  
Celso Henrique Leite Silva Junior ◽  
Yosio Edemir Shimabukuro ◽  
Egidio Arai ◽  
Luiz Eduardo Oliveira Cruz e Aragão ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Accuracy Assessment ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Tree Canopy Cover ◽  
Amazonian Forests ◽  
Year 2000

Open global forest cover data can be a critical component for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policies. In this work, we determine the best threshold, compatible with the official Brazilian dataset, for establishing a forest mask cover within the Amazon basin for the year 2000 using the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 GFC product. We compared forest cover maps produced using several thresholds (10%, 30%, 50%, 80%, 85%, 90%, and 95%) with a forest cover map for the same year from the Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Monitoring Project (PRODES) data, produced by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). We also compared the forest cover classifications indicated by each of these maps to 2550 independently assessed Landsat pixels for the year 2000, providing an accuracy assessment for each of these map products. We found that thresholds of 80% and 85% best matched with the PRODES data. Consequently, we recommend using an 80% threshold for the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 data for assessing forest cover in the Amazon basin.

scholarly journals Changing patterns of fire occurrence in proximity to forest edges, roads and rivers between NW Amazonian countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2755-2765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolors Armenteras ◽  
Joan Sebastian Barreto ◽  
Karyn Tabor ◽  
Roberto Molowny-Horas ◽  
Javier Retana
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fragmentation ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Forest Edge ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
The North ◽  
Active Fire

Abstract. Tropical forests in NW Amazonia are highly threatened by the expansion of the agricultural frontier and subsequent deforestation. Fire is used, both directly and indirectly, in Brazilian Amazonia to propagate deforestation and increase forest accessibility. Forest fragmentation, a measure of forest degradation, is also attributed to fire occurrence in the tropics. However, outside the Brazilian Legal Amazonia the role of fire in increasing accessibility and forest fragmentation is less explored. In this study, we compared fire regimes in five countries that share this tropical biome in the most north-westerly part of the Amazon Basin (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil). We analysed spatial differences in the timing of peak fire activity and in relation to proximity to roads and rivers using 12 years of MODIS active fire detections. We also distinguished patterns of fire in relation to forest fragmentation by analysing fire distance to the forest edge as a measure of fragmentation for each country. We found significant hemispheric differences in peak fire occurrence with the highest number of fires in the south in 2005 vs. 2007 in the north. Despite this, both hemispheres are equally affected by fire. We also found difference in peak fire occurrence by country. Fire peaked in February in Colombia and Venezuela, whereas it peaked in September in Brazil and Peru, and finally Ecuador presented two fire peaks in January and October. We confirmed the relationship between fires and forest fragmentation for all countries and also found significant differences in the distance between the fire and the forest edge for each country. Fires were associated with roads and rivers in most countries. These results can inform land use planning at the regional, national and subnational scales to minimize the contribution of road expansion and subsequent access to the Amazonian natural resources to fire occurrence and the associated deforestation and carbon emissions.

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