Abstract
Carbon losses from forest degradation and disturbances are significant and growing sources of emissions in the Brazilian Amazon. Between 2003 and 2019, degradation and disturbance accounted for 44% of forest carbon losses in the region, compared with 56% from deforestation (forest clearing). We found that land tenure played a decisive role in explaining these carbon losses, with Undesignated Public Forests and Other Lands (e.g., private properties) accounting for the majority (82%) of losses during the study period. Illegal deforestation and land grabbing in Undesignated Public Forests widespread and increasingly are important drivers of forest carbon emissions from the region. In contrast, indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas had the lowest emissions, demonstrating their effectiveness in preventing deforestation and maintaining carbon stocks. These trends underscore the urgent need to develop reliable systems for monitoring and reporting on carbon losses from forest degradation and disturbance. Together with improved governance, such actions will be crucial for Brazil to reduce pressure on standing forests; strengthen Indigenous land rights; and design effective climate mitigation strategies needed to achieve its national and international climate commitments.
Highlights
Stopping emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is essential for tropical nations to achieve their climate mitigation targets, and for the world to avoid the worst impacts of climate change
Forest carbon losses remain a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in countries like Brazil (Figure 1A), which holds the largest remaining tract of tropical forest in the world (Moutinho et al, 2016)
Our findings suggest that many regions in the Brazilian Amazon are moving in the opposite direction, with substantial increases in illegal deforestation and growing emissions from degradation/disturbance
Summary
Stopping emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is essential for tropical nations to achieve their climate mitigation targets, and for the world to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Degradation from anthropogenic activities such as selective logging, fire, mining, and oil extraction—much of it occurring illegally in protected forests (ITs and PNAs) and UPFs—is an increasingly important driver of carbon emissions from tropical forests (Figure 3) Such human-induced degradation may be compounded by natural disturbances and indirect impacts of deforestation, including edge effects that expose forests to wind, higher temperatures, understory drying, grass invasion, and fire (Laurance, 2000; Brinck et al, 2017; Silvério et al, 2019). This approach may overestimate anthropogenic disturbances in some years, our relatively long time series should reduce their influence and allow the identification of important spatial and temporal trends
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