The accelerated destruction of the rainforest that form a precious cooling band around the Earth’s Equator, is now being recognized as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation are almost equal to those emitted through industrial activities. The latest findings from the United Nations and estimates contained in the Stern Report, show that deforestation accounts for 17,4 percent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while industry accounts for 19,4 percent (IPCC, 2007).
According to the FAO 2006 (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) CO2 reserves in the forests’ biomass decreased between 1990 and 2005 by approximately four billion tons per year. The destruction amounts to 12,9 million hectares per year from 2000 to 2005 (IPCC.2007) or an area the size of England. The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere.
Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Indonesia are also important factors for the regional climate. In Brazil, much of the rains that falls in the Central and Southern part of the country has its origin in the evapotranspiration of the Amazon rainforest. The deforestation has, therefore, a direct impact on the large agricultural and forestry production in the States of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo and Parana. The worldwide generation of rainfall by tropical forests is, therefore, an important source to the global production of food.
Different nations already recognize the value of uncultivated land. The EU offers EURO 200 per hectare subsidies per year for “environmental services” to its farmers to set aside their land. Putting a value on the carbon these vital forests contain and absorb is the only way to slow their destruction.
The following project is an important contribution to generate measurable data for the “environmental services” of Amazon rainforests at a locality where the rainforest is still virtually intact and no anthropogenic impacts have occurred.
