New study is a warning ‘the lungs of the planet’ could be reaching their tipping point.
A new study published in Global Change Biology shows that forest degradation in the Amazon increased by 44% between 2023 and 2024 – a rise of 163% compared with 2022. In total, 25,023 square kilometres of the rainforest degraded last year alone.
Forest fires were the leading cause of this, with 66% of degradation attributed to blazes. Severe drought between 2023 and 2024, with precipitation deficits between 60 and 100millimetres per month, and a temperature increase of 3C, also contributed to the situation. During this period, the biome recorded the highest number of hotspots since 2007: 140,328.
The study, conducted by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, has been taken as proof that satellites are now capable of successfully identifying and tracking the degradation process. It also points to the ongoing decline of the Amazon’s health, despite the other main cause for concern in the region – deforestation – slowing. According to the INPE’s Brazilian Amazon Forest Satellite Monitoring Program [PRODES], between 27.5 and 54.2% less forest was cleared in 2024 compared with the preceding 12 months.
‘These processes had been silently compromising the integrity of our forests,’ said Luiz Aragão, of the Tropical Ecosystems and Environmental Sciences Laboratory [TREES]. ‘Today’s technologies not only provide the capacity to monitor events, report the associated carbon emissions and their impacts on the environment, the population, and the planetary climate, but also enable strategic planning for sustainable, low-carbon territorial management.
Previous studies have already shown that around 40% of the Amazon’s standing forest is degraded from fires, edge effects, illegal logging and drought. The process does not completely remove vegetation, but reduces the ecosystem’s resilience by restricting the ability to provide essential services like carbon capture and water cycle regulation. Over time, this causes flora to die off, with anything between 50 and 200million additional tonnes of emissions per year attributed to this problem. This is roughly the same as is caused by deforestation.
Brazil was the first country to submit a new Nationally Determined Contribution [NDC] to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC]. The government has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 59% to 67% by 2035, compared to 2005 levels (850million to 1.05billion tons of CO2 equivalent). The continued degradation process poses a significant threat to these goals.
‘Brazil’s leadership on the international stage in terms of actions to combat climate change and biodiversity loss depends on effective responses to forest degradation,’ said Aragão. ‘Reporting the emissions associated with these processes is a path of no return within the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Therefore, the intensification of control measures, with the implementation of consistent policies that address this process, becomes a national priority.’
Image: Guick / Unsplash
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