Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Revisão Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation

2023; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 379; Issue: 6630 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.abp8622

1095-9203

David M. Lapola, Patrícia Pinho, Jos Barlow, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Érika Berenguer, Rachel Carmenta, Hannah M. Liddy, Hugo Tameirão Seixas, Camila V. J. Silva, Celso H. L. Silva, Ane Alencar, Liana O. Anderson, Dolors Armenteras, Victor Brovkin, Kim Calders, Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Louise Chini, Marcos Heil Costa, Bruno Lopes de Faria, Philip M. Fearnside, Joice Ferreira, Luciana V. Gatti, Víctor Hugo Gutiérrez-Vélez, Zhangang Han, K. A. Hibbard, Charles D. Koven, Peter Lawrence, Julia Pongratz, Bruno Takeshi Tanaka Portela, Mark Rounsevell, Alex C. Ruane, Rüdiger Schaldach, Sonaira Souza da Silva, Celso von Randow, Wayne Walker,

Economic and Environmental Valuation

Approximately 2.5 × 106 square kilometers of the Amazon forest are currently degraded by fire, edge effects, timber extraction, and/or extreme drought, representing 38% of all remaining forests in the region. Carbon emissions from this degradation total up to 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1), which is equivalent to, if not greater than, the emissions from Amazon deforestation (0.06 to 0.21 Pg C year-1). Amazon forest degradation can reduce dry-season evapotranspiration by up to 34% and cause as much biodiversity loss as deforestation in human-modified landscapes, generating uneven socioeconomic burdens, mainly to forest dwellers. Projections indicate that degradation will remain a dominant source of carbon emissions independent of deforestation rates. Policies to tackle degradation should be integrated with efforts to curb deforestation and complemented with innovative measures addressing the disturbances that degrade the Amazon forest.