The Amazon Rainforest

• The AR contains around 300 billion trees, and 15,000 species of them. These trees store 1/5 of the world's terrestrial carbon and cover 5.5 million km^2 over 9 countries.
• The AR stores between 80-100 billion tonnes of carbon. Combined, tropical rainforests around the world form carbon sinks of over 1-3 gigatonnes of carbon a year.
• Due to increased carbon emissions and therefore sequestration, there has been an increase in the above-ground biomass of 0.3-0.5% a year. This helps offset carbon dioxide emissions through negative feedback loops.
• Studies of the AR in 2015 found it is losing its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

  In 1990 it absorbed 2 billion tonnes, but in 2015 that number had halved. Latin American emissions have overtaken the continent's carbon dioxide uptake for the first time.
• In the future it is predicted that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide will lead to a growth spurt in trees and plants. Due to the growth stimulation the trees will live faster and die younger, however a surge in death rates will release more carbon.
• The discharge of water from the AR accounts for 15% of all freshwater which enters the oceans every day.
• The Amazon River's tributary Rio Negro is the second largest river (by water flow) in the world.
• The AR experiences an average 2000mm of annual rainfall, however this number can rise to 6000mm in North-Western areas.
• Up to half of all rainfall is intercepted by the rainforest canopy, and through evaporation 48% of rainfall returns to the atmosphere. Only 30% of rainfall reaches the sea.
• Human impacts on the AR in Brazil:

  • logging (demand for timber for fuel and construction)
  • mining and industry (clear forests to reach minerals)
  • large dams and reservoirs drown forests (HEP)
  • Avanca Brazil (government policies)
  • intensive agriculture (cattle ranching, soya plantations etc)
  • government-organised forest colonisation schemes
• 𝘼𝙑𝘼𝙉𝘾𝘼 𝘽𝙍𝘼𝙕𝙄𝙇 / 𝙋𝘼𝘾:

  PAC = Growth Acceleration Program (translated from Portuguese)

  It is a government policy to develop the economy using rainforest resources: exploiting the forest for the economy's gain.
• 𝘽𝙄𝙂𝙂𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙄𝙎𝙎𝙐𝙀𝙎:

  • overpopulation and poverty in cities (political difficulties + the rise of favelas e.g. Sao Paulo)
  • government wants to open up the rainforest to take advantage of timber and mineral resources
  • beef producers require more land to sustain their large cattle herds (2nd largest beef producer in the world)
  • developing Brazilian industry (previous member of BRICS)
• The four big issues impacting the AR have led Brazilian governments to encourage poor people from cities to settle in the forest, clearing it for farming and housing in the process. In some cases, land has simply been given away, actively perpetuating the destruction of the rainforest.
• Timber companies have been given the right to remove forests and sell the timber abroad, in return giving the Brazilian government a portion of the company profits in order to pay off international debt. Illegal growing and felling of timber is also leading to rapid deforestation, fuelled by the growing demand for cheap supplies of plywood/tropical timber both locally and globally (7th largest global exporter).
• Illegal timber is estimated to account for 80% of all timber produced in the Brazilian Amazon.
• As the AR is rich in resources, mining companies have been given licenses to clear forests in order to reach valuable metals (e.g. iron ore, copper).
• Roads are being built across the rainforest to make these destructive activities more accessible. The longest road is the Trans-Amazonian Highway, stretching 5,300km across Brazil from east to west. It required large tracts of forest to be cleared to make space for it but also encouraged settlers to move there to escape the overcrowded cities (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Manaus, etc.), who cleared even more forest to build housing.
• A new city, Brasilia, was built from scratch in the 1950s/60s to encourage the settlement of the region. Today it is the capital of Brazil, with over 2.8 million residents.
• Manaus is the biggest city in the Amazon and the 7th largest region in Brazil, having a population of around 2.3 million people (2023). It is located at the confluence of the two rivers which form the river Rio Negro, the city's main water supply, providing water to 50% of the population of the Amazon River.
• The Rio Negro River is the operating area of 125 hydroelectric power (HEP) stations, the largest of these being the Tucurui Dam. This dam has previously caused the flooding of over 2,500km² of the AR.
• The 1970s was a period of rapid development for Manaus, which was not properly planned for and therefore resulted in housing shortages, poor quality housing, the growth of informal settlements, etc. There is currently a shortage of 128,000 houses in Manaus.
• Manaus's rapid development was a result of its major role in the trade of rubber and latex along the Amazon River in the 19th century - it was the richest city in South America during this period.
• Informal settlements built on the outskirts of Manaus expand into the rainforest, leading to increased deforestation as the population continues to grow.
• The Manaus Free Trade Zones (an early version of PAC) in 1957 encouraged people to invest and live in Manaus/the surrounding areas. It was a success through the lack of tariffs on its zones.
• Manaus has the fastest rate of development in Brazil.
• Emissions from the city of Manaus hang out above both the city and the surrounding rainforest, contributing the formation of toxic aerosols in the ozone.
• In January 2000, the Brazilian government announced its plans for Avanca Brazil. It was a £50 billion plan to cover much of the AR with 10,000km of highways, hydroelectric dams, power lines, oil fields, and other industrial developments.
• Scientists predict that planned developments (e.g. Avanca, PAC 1 & 2) will lead to damage to and/or the loss of 40% of the AR's coverage.
• There are vast areas of the Amazon Rainforest still intact; the majority of deforestation occurs on the outskirts of the forest. However, there are over 8,000 companies registered in the AR and deforestation rates are currently increasing because of this.
• The Amazon Rainforest is a global carbon sink and stores between 80 and 120 billion tonnes of carbon. However, in 2015, it was proven to be losing its capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere; in 1990, it absorbed 2 billion tonnes, but in 2015 this number had halved. Now, Latin American emissions have overtaken the region’s total carbon uptake for the first time.
• In January 2000, the Brazilian government announced its plans for a new policy called Avança Brasil, in which the equivalent of £50 billion would be allotted to 10,000km of new highways, hydroelectric dams, oil fields, and other industrial developments. The environmental and social costs of deforestation directly caused by this industrialisation are high; among them is the loss of opportunities for sustainable services of the forest, such as biodiversity maintenance, water cycling, and especially carbon storage.
• Studies have found that from 1988-2008, an 80,000 square kilometre area around the Tucuruí dam in the Amazon lost an average of 600-700 square kilometres of forest annually. Scientists predict that planned developments such as Avança Brasil will inevitably lead to the damage and/or loss of over 40% of the Amazon Rainforest’s coverage. This will extremely impact its ability to store carbon, and what has already been stored will be released quickly and in large amounts, primarily when vegetation is removed via slash-and-burn deforestation.
• Research carried out into the role of fire in amplifying irreversible large-scale Amazon die-back has discovered that fire prevents regrowth across 60-80% of the potential natural forest area. However, one benefit of this type of deforestation is its ability to diversify forested areas with new species when old, dominating competition is removed, furthered by the fertilising properties of the ash itself. Young growth absorbs carbon at a faster rate, although the sustainability of this benefit is contingent on how much carbon was released during the combustion of the older trees.
• Another impact of human activity on the Amazon is intensive agriculture. Brazil is the second largest beef producer in the world after the USA and requires vast tracts of land to accommodate its immense herds. Cattle ranching accounts for 65-75% of all ‘habitat conversion’ (deforestation) in the rainforest, therefore responsible for the release of 340 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere every year - equivalent to 3.4% of current global emissions. 
• Beyond deforestation, cattle pastures increase the risk of fire and are a significant degrader of ecosystems, causing soil erosion and river contamination. The prevalence of this agribusiness is expanding continuously, and as the soil left behind by cattle is bare and baked in the sun, the area remains permanently deforested.
• Further, soil is a major component of the lithosphere - storing approximately 2,500 gigatonnes of carbon worldwide - and when desertified releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. This is extremely unsustainable as carbon capture methods cannot possibly sequester the volume of carbon currently stored in soils if they continue to erode.
• The statistics defining deforestation in the Amazon give reason to believe that the forest is close to being destroyed; this is not the case, as around 74% of it is still intact enough to continue to act as a carbon sink. The forest still absorbs vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and stores it, therefore still partly sustainable, reducing the permanence of the impacts of human activity. 
• Not all agriculture in Brazil is harmful; the increasing popularity of the ‘shifting cultivation’ mode of farming allows fallowed land to revert to its natural vegetation whilst farmers move elsewhere. This is a sustainable process used on a small scale, such as by subsistence farmers and indigenous tribes, and therefore creates a balance of emissions caused by deforestation. If the Brazilian government were to provide large-scale agribusinesses with an incentive to undertake this method of farming in a mechanised way, it may bring equilibrium to Latin American carbon emissions and uptake.
• Human activity in Latin America directly impacts the welfare of the Amazon Rainforest and the normal functioning of its associated carbon cycle, as the simple fact that emissions are far higher than uptake proves the Amazon cannot compete with the devastating carbon footprint of humans. If rates of deforestation, intensive agriculture, and extreme weather continue, the longterm effects of human presence will inevitably push the rainforest past its limit. Recovery is presently possible but requires massive collaboration from both local/global governments, NGOs, the private industry sector, etc.
• At present, the rainforest acts as a carbon sink and absorbs around 35% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen.