Madeira basin

• ITCZ wet season - High isolation...ground warms air…high air temperature….hot air rises…low air pressure…sucks in moisture from adjacent tropical oceans…low air pressure = air becomes unstable allowing particles to rise easily encouraging convection
• 7 major flood events between 1992-2014
• Converting rainforest to grassland increases run-off by a factor of 27
• 50% of all rainfall falling onto grassland goes directly into the river
• Rondonia experienced a 23% decrease in tree cover from 2000-2009
• Less interception…decreased soul quality (removal of potassium and phosphorus)
• Protected areas such as the 283,117-hectare Rio Madeira Sustainable Developement Reserve
• Jamari protected area = No deforestation
• Bom Futuro = Numbers have slightly and gradually decreased since 2016-2020 but still lots of deforestation
• 2 large dams were completed in 2015 - The Jirau and Santo Antonio at an estimated cost of $15 billion = reservoirs up to 870km2
• 468km2 of natural rainforest has been lost due to flooding
• Primary rainforest stores up to 300 tonnes per hectare
• If we didn’t have rainforests, carbon concentration would be 2x as much as it currently is
• Rainforest average = 200 Tonnes per hectare, Oil palm = 30 Tonnes per hectare - 85% decrease of stored carbon
• Oil palm plantation also reduced the carbon flows by 50% compared to primary rainforest
• IBAMA - 9,771 fines in 2018, only 6,895 in 2019 = decrease of 29.4%
• Fines relating to Flora dropped from 4,138 to 2,535 over the same period
• ARPA - Established 283,000km2 of protected areas, established 89,000km2 of sustainable use reserve for local communities to look after, and transformed 125,000km2 to management standards
• ARPA witnessed a 17% increase in management effectiveness from 2001-2015