Inhibition of Amazon deforestation and fire by parks and indigenous lands

The positive impact of conservation action

Governments recently adopted new global targets to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. It is therefore crucial to understand the outcomes of conservation actions. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 186 studies (including 665 trials) that measured biodiversity over time and compared outcomes under conservation action with a suitable counterfactual of no action. We find that in two-thirds of cases, conservation either improved the state of biodiversity or at least slowed declines. Specifically, we find that interventions targeted at species and ecosystems, such as invasive species control, habitat loss reduction and restoration, protected areas, and sustainable management, are highly effective and have large effect sizes. This provides the strongest evidence to date that conservation actions are successful but require transformational scaling up to meet global targets.

Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system

The possibility that the Amazon forest system could soon reach a tipping point, inducing large-scale collapse, has raised global concern1-3. For 65 million years, Amazonian forests remained relatively resilient to climatic variability. Now, the region is increasingly exposed to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme droughts, deforestation and fires, even in central and remote parts of the system1. Long existing feedbacks between the forest and environmental conditions are being replaced by novel feedbacks that modify ecosystem resilience, increasing the risk of critical transition. Here we analyse existing evidence for five major drivers of water stress on Amazonian forests, as well as potential critical thresholds of those drivers that, if crossed, could trigger local, regional or even biome-wide forest collapse. By combining spatial information on various disturbances, we estimate that by 2050, 10% to 47% of Amazonian forests will be exposed to compounding disturbances that may trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions and potentially exacerbate regional climate change. Using examples of disturbed forests across the Amazon, we identify the three most plausible ecosystem trajectories, involving different feedbacks and environmental conditions. We discuss how the inherent complexity of the Amazon adds uncertainty about future dynamics, but also reveals opportunities for action. Keeping the Amazon forest resilient in the Anthropocene will depend on a combination of local efforts to end deforestation and degradation and to expand restoration, with global efforts to stop greenhouse gas emissions.

Changes in the surface water quality of a tropical watershed in the southeastern amazon due to the environmental impacts of artisanal mining

The expansion of areas of human occupation and the increase in economic activity and deforestation are negatively impacting the Amazon ecosystem. Situated in the Carajás Mineral Province in the southeastern Amazon, the Itacaiúnas River Watershed (IRW) encompasses several active mines and has a historical record of intense deforestation primarily linked with the expansion of pasturelands, but also of urban areas, and mining activities. Industrial mining projects are subjected to strict environmental control, but artisanal mining (ASM; 'garimpos') sites have not been controlled, despite their known environmental impacts. In recent years, the opening and expansion of ASM in the IRW for the exploitation of mineral resources (Au, Mn, and Cu) have been remarkable. This study presents evidence of anthropogenic impacts, mainly caused by ASM, on the quality and hydrogeochemical characteristics of the IRW surface water. The hydrogeochemical data sets of two projects carried out in the IRW, during 2017 and from 2020 until present, were used to evaluate these impacts within the region. Water quality indices were calculated for the surface water samples. For the whole IRW, water collected during the dry season tended to yield better quality indicators in comparison to those collected during the rainy season. Two sampling sites at Sereno Creek showed very poor water quality and extremely high concentrations of Fe, Al, and potentially toxic elements over time. From 2016 to 2022, ASM sites increased markedly. Moreover, there are indications that Mn exploitation via ASM in Sereno hill is the main source of contamination in the area. New trends of ASM expansion were observed along the main watercourses, related to the exploitation of Au from alluvial deposits. Similar anthropogenic impacts are registered in other regions of the Amazon and environmental monitoring should be encouraged to assess the chemical safety of strategic areas.

The climatic risk of Amazonian protected areas is driven by climate velocity until 2050

Changes in species distribution in response to climate change might challenge the territorial boundaries of protected areas. Amazonia is one of the global regions most at risk of developing long distances between current and future analogous climates and the emergence of climate conditions without analogs in the past. As a result, species present within the network of Protected Areas (PAs) of Amazonia may be threatened throughout the 21st century. In this study, we investigated climate velocity based on future and past climate-analogs using forward and backward directions in the network of PAs of Amazonia, in order to assess the climatic risk of these areas to climate change and verify their effectiveness in maintaining the current climate conditions. Using current (1970-2000) and future (2041-2060) average annual air temperature and precipitation data with a resolution of 10 km, climate velocities across the entire Amazon biome and average climate velocities of PAs and Indigenous Lands (ILs) were evaluated. The results show that the effects of backward velocity will be greater than that of forward velocity in the Amazon biome. However, the PA network will be less exposed to backward velocity impacts than unprotected areas (UAs)-emphasizing the importance of these areas as a conservation tool. In contrast, for the forward velocity impacts, the PA network will be slightly more exposed than UAs-indicating that the current spatial arrangement of the PA network is still not the most suitable to minimize impacts of a possible climate redistribution. In addition, a large extent of no-analog climates for backward velocities was found in central Amazonia, indicating that high temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns in this region will surpass the historical variability of the entire biome, making it a potentially isolated and unsuitable climatic envelope for species in the future. Most of the no-analog climates are in PAs, however the climate risks in ILs should also be highlighted since they presented higher climate velocities than PAs in both metrics. Our projections contrast with the median latitudinal migration rate of 2 km/year observed in most ecosystems and taxonomic groups studied so far and suggest the need for median migration rates of 7.6 km/year. Thus, despite the important role of PAs and ILs as conservation tools, they are not immune to the effects of climate change and new management strategies, specific to each area and that allow adaptation to global changes, will be necessary.

Brazilian Amazon indigenous territories under deforestation pressure

Studies showed that Brazilian Amazon indigenous territories (ITs) are efficient models for preserving forests by reducing deforestation, fires, and related carbon emissions. Considering the importance of ITs for conserving socio-environmental and cultural diversity and the recent climb in the Brazilian Amazon deforestation, we used official remote sensing datasets to analyze deforestation inside and outside indigenous territories within Brazil's Amazon biome during the 2013-2021 period. Deforestation has increased by 129% inside ITs since 2013, followed by an increase in illegal mining areas. In 2019-2021, deforestation was 195% higher and 30% farther from the borders towards the interior of indigenous territories than in previous years (2013-2018). Furthermore, about 59% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions within ITs in 2013-2021 (96 million tons) occurred in the last three years of analyzed years, revealing the magnitude of increasing deforestation to climate impacts. Therefore, curbing deforestation in indigenous territories must be a priority for the Brazilian government to secure these peoples' land rights, ensure the forests' protection and regulate the global climate.

Integrating traditional ecological knowledge into US public land management: Knowledge gaps and research priorities

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is an understanding of natural systems acquired through long-term human interactions with particular landscapes. Traditional knowledge systems complement western scientific disciplines by providing a holistic assessment of ecosystem dynamics and extending the time horizon of ecological observations. Integration of TEK into land management is a key priority of numerous groups, including the United Nations and US public land management agencies; however, TEK principles have rarely been enshrined in national-level US policy or planning. We review over 20 years of TEK literature to describe key applications of TEK to ecological understanding, conservation, restoration and land management generally. By identifying knowledge gaps, we highlight research avenues to support the integration of TEK into US public land management, in order to enhance conservation approaches and participation of historically underrepresented groups, particularly American Indian Tribes, in the stewardship of ancestral lands critical to the practice of living cultural traditions.

Effects of forest degradation classification on the uncertainty of aboveground carbon estimates in the Amazon

BACKGROUND

Tropical forests are critical for the global carbon budget, yet they have been threatened by deforestation and forest degradation by fire, selective logging, and fragmentation. Existing uncertainties on land cover classification and in biomass estimates hinder accurate attribution of carbon emissions to specific forest classes. In this study, we used textural metrics derived from PlanetScope images to implement a probabilistic classification framework to identify intact, logged and burned forests in three Amazonian sites. We also estimated biomass for these forest classes using airborne lidar and compared biomass uncertainties using the lidar-derived estimates only to biomass uncertainties considering the forest degradation classification as well.

RESULTS

Our classification approach reached overall accuracy of 0.86, with accuracy at individual sites varying from 0.69 to 0.93. Logged forests showed variable biomass changes, while burned forests showed an average carbon loss of 35%. We found that including uncertainty in forest degradation classification significantly increased uncertainty and decreased estimates of mean carbon density in two of the three test sites.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that the attribution of biomass changes to forest degradation classes needs to account for the uncertainty in forest degradation classification. By combining very high-resolution images with lidar data, we could attribute carbon stock changes to specific pathways of forest degradation. This approach also allows quantifying uncertainties of carbon emissions associated with forest degradation through logging and fire. Both the attribution and uncertainty quantification provide critical information for national greenhouse gas inventories.

Local working collections as the foundation for an integrated conservation of Theobroma cacao L. in Latin America

The intraspecific diversity of cacao has traditionally been preserved in genebanks. However, these establishments face various challenges, notably insufficient funding, accession redundancy, misidentification and lack of wild cacao population samples. In natural environments, it is expected that unknown varieties of cacao may still be found, but wild populations of cacao are increasingly threatened by climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, land use changes and poor knowledge. Farmers also retain diversity, but on-farm conservation is affected by geopolitical, economic, management and cultural issues, that are influenced at multiple scales, from the household to the international market. Taking separately, ex situ, in situ and on-farm conservation have not achieved adequate conservation fostering the inclusion of all stakeholders and the broad use of cacao diversity. We analyze the use of the traditional conservation strategies (ex situ, in situ and on-farm) and propose an integrated approach based on local working collections to secure cacao diversity in the long term. We argue that national conservation networks should be implemented in countries of origin to simultaneously maximize alpha (diversity held in any given working collection), beta (the change in diversity between working collections in different regions) and gamma diversity (overall diversity in a country).

Overlooked jaguar guardians: Indigenous territories and range-wide conservation of a cultural icon

Indigenous territories (ITs) are an integral component of global conservation strategies. We evaluate the range-wide overlap of ITs and the distribution of the jaguar (Panthera onca), a Neotropical apex predator with considerable cultural significance among Indigenous Peoples. We quantified overlap between protected areas (PAs) and ITs among: (1) jaguar range, (2) the species' core habitats, known as Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), and (3) corridors connecting JCUs. We further evaluated deforestation rates between 2000 and 2020 among protected, unprotected, and indigenous portions of JCUs and corridors and compared jaguar density estimates among these land tenures. Our results indicate that ITs overlap 27.7% of jaguar range. South American JCUs and corridors, which comprise ~ 94% of jaguar distribution, experienced significantly less deforestation where ITs intersected PAs. We documented an unbalanced ratio of jaguar density estimates between indigenous and non-indigenous areas, highlighting the need for more representative sampling. Collaborative approaches for jaguar conservation, informed and guided by indigenous knowledge, can support more inclusive and effective monitoring that reduces dependence on external support.

Indigenous lands in protected areas have high forest integrity across the tropics

Intact tropical forests have a high conservation value.¹ Although perceived as wild,² they have been under long-term human influence.³ As global area-based conservation targets increase, the ecological contributions of Indigenous peoples through their governance institutions and practices⁴ are gaining mainstream interest. Indigenous lands-covering a quarter of Earth's surface⁵ and overlapping with a third of intact forests⁶-often have reduced deforestation, degradation, and carbon emissions, compared with non-protected areas and protected areas.^7,8 A key question with implications for the design of more equitable and effective conservation policies is to understand the impacts of Indigenous lands on forest integrity and long-term use, as critical measures of ecosystem health included within the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.⁹ Using the forest landscape integrity index¹⁰ and Anthromes¹¹ datasets, we find that high-integrity forests tend to be located within the overlap of protected areas and Indigenous lands (protected-Indigenous areas). After accounting for location biases through statistical matching and regression, protected-Indigenous areas had the highest protective effect on forest integrity and the lowest land-use intensity relative to Indigenous lands, protected areas, and non-protected controls pan-tropically. The protective effect of Indigenous lands on forest integrity was lower in Indigenous lands than in protected areas and non-protected areas in the Americas and Asia. The combined positive effects of state legislation and Indigenous presence in protected-Indigenous areas may contribute to maintaining tropical forest integrity. Understanding management and governance in protected-Indigenous areas can help states to appropriately support community-governed lands.

Conservation in the Amazon rainforest and Google searches: A DCCA approach

In this paper we analyze the descriptive statistics of the Google search volume for the terms related to the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (RENCA), a Brazilian mineral reserve in the Amazon of 4.6 million hectares, before and after the government signed the decree releasing it for exploration. First, we analyze the volume of searches for expressions related to RENCA in Google Trends using descriptive statistics; second, we assess the cross-correlation coefficient ρDCCA, which measures the cross-correlation between two nonstationary time series across different time scales. After the government announced the release of the RENCA reserve, there was an increase in the average volume of Google searches for related terms, showing people's concern about the announcement. By using the cross-correlation coefficient ρDCCA, we identify strong cross-correlations between the different expressions related to RENCA in Google Trends. Our work shows the utility of Google Trends as an indicator of the perception of environmental policies. Additionally, we show that ρDCCA can be used as a tool to measure the cross-correlation between synonyms extracted from Google Trends for various time scales.

Primate conservation in the Arc of Deforestation: a case study of Vieira's titi monkey Plecturocebus vieirai

Fifty years of deforestation in the Arc of Deforestation have put at risk species survival, ecosystem services and the stability of biogeochemical cycles in Amazonia, with global repercussions. In response, we need to understand the diversity, distribution and abundance of flagship species groups, such as primates, which can serve as umbrella species for broad biodiversity conservation strategies and help mitigate climate change. Here we identify the range, suitable habitat areas and population size of Vieira's titi monkey Plecturocebus vieirai and use it as an emblematic example to discuss biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation in one of the largest deforestation frontiers. Our findings show that deforestation for agriculture and cattle-ranching expansion is the major threat to P. vieirai and is responsible for present (56%) and projected (14%) reductions in habitat area and population size. We also found that human-driven climate change affects the P. vieirai niche negatively, triggering habitat degradation and further population decline even inside protected areas. Primate watching can be a profitable alternative to forest exploitation on private, public or Indigenous lands in the Arc of Deforestation and is a way to shift the traditional, predatory extraction of natural resources from Amazonia towards sustainable land use based on biodiversity conservation at local, regional and global scales, local people's welfare and climate change mitigation. New models of land use and income generation are required to protect the unique natural and human heritages of the Arc of Deforestation and the life-supporting ecosystem services and products provided by Amazonia.

Feedback in tropical forests of the Anthropocene

Tropical forests are complex systems containing myriad interactions and feedbacks with their biotic and abiotic environments, but as the world changes fast, the future of these ecosystems becomes increasingly uncertain. In particular, global stressors may unbalance the feedbacks that stabilize tropical forests, allowing other feedbacks to propel undesired changes in the whole ecosystem. Here, we review the scientific literature across various fields, compiling known interactions of tropical forests with their environment, including the global climate, rainfall, aerosols, fire, soils, fauna, and human activities. We identify 170 individual interactions among 32 elements that we present as a global tropical forest network, including countless feedback loops that may emerge from different combinations of interactions. We illustrate our findings with three cases involving urgent sustainability issues: (1) wildfires in wetlands of South America; (2) forest encroachment in African savanna landscapes; and (3) synergistic threats to the peatland forests of Borneo. Our findings reveal an unexplored world of feedbacks that shape the dynamics of tropical forests. The interactions and feedbacks identified here can guide future qualitative and quantitative research on the complexities of tropical forests, allowing societies to manage the nonlinear responses of these ecosystems in the Anthropocene.

Global importance of Indigenous Peoples, their lands, and knowledge systems for saving the world's primates from extinction

Primates, represented by 521 species, are distributed across 91 countries primarily in the Neotropic, Afrotropic, and Indo-Malayan realms. Primates inhabit a wide range of habitats and play critical roles in sustaining healthy ecosystems that benefit human and nonhuman communities. Approximately 68% of primate species are threatened with extinction because of global pressures to convert their habitats for agricultural production and the extraction of natural resources. Here, we review the scientific literature and conduct a spatial analysis to assess the significance of Indigenous Peoples' lands in safeguarding primate biodiversity. We found that Indigenous Peoples' lands account for 30% of the primate range, and 71% of primate species inhabit these lands. As their range on these lands increases, primate species are less likely to be classified as threatened or have declining populations. Safeguarding Indigenous Peoples' lands, languages, and cultures represents our greatest chance to prevent the extinction of the world's primates.

Highway Network and Fire Occurrence in Amazonian Indigenous Lands

The construction and expansion of highways aiming to improve the integration of the most isolated regions in Brazil facilitated the access to many inhabited areas in the Amazon biome, but had as a consequence assisted the degradation of many of these regions. Over the last two decades, we have observed in this biome a gradual diversification and intensification of land uses through vegetation loss and an increase in fire associated with deforestation and an increase in grazing areas. We used data from several active fires products derived from 14 different satellites, available on the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). We evaluated the influence of highway infrastructure on fire occurrence inside and around Indigenous Lands (IL) located in the Brazilian Amazon biome, from 2008 to 2021. We classified 332 ILs into “cut by highways”, “without highways”, and “with highways in a 10 km buffer”. We performed: (a) the descriptive statistics of the fire occurrence by state, by season, and by type of land use and land cover (LULC) affected by fire; (b) the spatial distribution of the active fire density; and (c) a simple linear regression model between the fire occurrence and the IL area. Our results showed that in total, 16–46% of the fires occurred within the IL in most of the states, while the 10 km buffer was the region most affected by fire. We confirmed that in the last three years there was a significant increase in the number of active fires, representing anomalies in fire occurrence across the studied period. We discussed the result implications and the role of the highway network in environmental degradation inside and around the ILs located in the Brazilian Amazon.

Plant species diversity in a tropical semi-evergreen forest in Mizoram (northeastern India): assessing the effectiveness of community conservation

Community conservation of forest as a means of biodiversity conservation has gained broad acceptance in recent years. However, there are not many studies in India on how effective they really are for conservation of plants and how they compare to formal protected areas. This study was carried out in Reiek forest, a community conserved forest protected for more than a century, initially by the village Chiefs and after the abolishment of chieftainship, by the community of the nearby villages. An attempt was made to study the plant species diversity of this forest which falls under the Indo-Myanmar diversity hotspot and it was compared to two ecologically similar formal protected areas within Mizoram. A total of 265 species belonging to 213 genera and 89 families were recorded. Two vulnerable species Eleocarpus rogusus and Saraca asocas were identified. It was found that this community conserved forest contained more plant species than the two protected areas. But endemic and threatened species were found to decline in the community conserved forest. 

The “New Transamazonian Highway”: BR-319 and Its Current Environmental Degradation

The Brazilian government intends to complete the paving of the BR-319 highway, which connects Porto Velho in the deforestation arc region with Manaus in the middle of the Amazon Forest. This paving is being planned despite environmental legislation, and there is concern that its effectiveness will cause additional deforestation, threatening large portions of forest, conservation units (CUs), and indigenous lands (ILs) in the surrounding areas. In this study, we evaluated environmental degradation along the BR-319 highway from 2008 to 2020 and verified whether highway maintenance has contributed to deforestation. For this purpose, we created a 20 km buffer adjacent to the BR-319 highway and evaluated variables extracted from remote sensing information between 2008 and 2020. Fire foci, burned areas, and rainfall data were used to calculate a drought index using statistical tests for a time series. Furthermore, these were related to data on deforestation, CUs, and ILs using principal component analysis and Pearson’s correlation. Our results showed that 743 km2 of forest was deforested during the period evaluated, most of which occurred in the last four years. A total of 16,472 fire foci were identified. Both deforestation and fire foci occurred mainly outside the CUs and ILs. The most affected areas were close to capital cities, and after resuming road maintenance in 2015, deforestation increased outside the capital cities. Current government policy for Amazon occupation promotes deforestation and will compromise Brazil’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and deforestation.

The farming management of Dayak People's community based on local wisdom ecosystem in Kalimantan Indonesia

This research aims to explain the urgency of the customary values and traditions in the farming management system of the Dayak People's in Kalimantan. The approach used was Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) in relation with the cultural cycle. This approach is important to explain the cycle of farming management systems and their concept about nature and environment in Dayak community. In the farming context, various existing values in Dayak community has been found such as values containing togetherness, compassionate, mutual cooperation, art, ritual and spiritual aspects. This research used a qualitative method through observation and direct interviews for its data collection techniques. The findings show that there were ten stages of whole series of farming management systems of Dayak community in Kalimantan, namely inspecting the land, determining the land area, cleaning or purifying farming tools, slashing, cutting the trees, burning the land, planting, weeding, harvesting, and performing thanks giving ceremony (begawai).

Forest frontiers out of control: The long-term effects of discourses, policies, and markets on conservation and development of the Brazilian Amazon

With the Brazilian military governments of the 1960s, systematic economic development of the Amazon began. Social and environmental concerns have entered Amazonian discourses and policies only since the 1990s. Since then, reports of threats to forests and indigenous people have alternated with reports of socio-economic progress and environmental achievements. These contradictions often arise from limited thematic, sectoral, temporal, or spatial perspectives, and lead to misinterpretation. Our paper offers a comprehensive picture of discourses, policies, and socio-environmental dynamics for the entire region over the last five decades. We distinguish eight historical policy phases, each of which had little effect on near-linear dynamics of demographic growth and land-use expansion, although some policies showed the potential to change the course of development. To prevent local, national, and international actors from continuing to assert harmful interests in the region, a coherent long-term commitment and change in the collective mindset are needed.

A Review of Small Farmer Land Use and Deforestation in Tropical Forest Frontiers: Implications for Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods

Forest conversion for agriculture is the most expansive signature of human occupation on the Earth’s surface. This paper develops a conceptual model of factors underlying frontier agricultural expansion—the predominant driver of deforestation worldwide—from the perspective of small farm households—the majority of farmers globally. The framework consists of four causal rubrics: demographic, socioeconomic, political–economic, and ecological. Following this approach, the article explores the current state of knowledge on tropical deforestation in tropical agricultural frontiers with a focus on Latin America, the region of greatest deforestation worldwide during recent decades. Neo-Malthusian arguments notwithstanding, in many tropical nations, deforestation has proceeded unabated in recent years despite declining rural populations. However, evidence from the global-to-household scale suggests that population size and composition are also related to farm forest conversion. Existing particularist or behaviorialist theories sometimes fail to capture key geographical and temporal dimensions, yet studies support the notion that certain cultural, individual, and household characteristics are crucial determinants of forest clearing. Conversely, while institutional arguments sometimes fail to emphasize that the ultimate land use change agents are local resource users, their livelihood decisions are shaped and constrained by policies governing economic subsidies, and market and infrastructure development. Further, although ecological change is usually modeled as an outcome in the deforestation literature, increasingly acute climate change and natural farm endowments form a dynamic tabula rasa on which household land use decisions are enabled. To more fully comprehend frontier forest conversion and to enhance protection and conservation while promoting vital local livelihoods, future research may fruitfully investigate the interaction of demographic, social, political, economic, and ecological factors across spatial scales and academic disciplines.

Integrating Human Rights and the Environment in Supply Chain Regulations

To address the negative externalities associated with global trade, countries in the Global North have increasingly adopted supply chain regulations. While global supply chains cause or contribute to interconnected environmental and human rights impacts, I show that supply chain regulations often exclusively target one policy domain. Furthermore, an analysis of the first experiences with the implementation of the French Duty of Vigilance law, which covers and gives equal weight to environmental and human rights risks, reveals that the inclusion of environmental and human rights standards in legal norms is not sufficient to ensure policy integration. The empirical focus here is on the soy and beef supply chains from Brazil to the European Union (EU), and the findings rely on an analysis of legal norms and company reports, field research at producing sites in Brazil and semi-structured interviews with civil society, business and state actors. For analyzing the data, I draw on the literature on environmental policy integration (EPI) and apply a framework that distinguishes between institutional, political and cognitive factors to discuss advances and challenges for integrating human rights and the environment in sustainability governance. The study concludes that more integrated approaches for regulating global supply chains would be needed to enable ‘just sustainability’.

Brazil's planned exploitation of Amazonian indigenous lands for commercial agriculture increases risk of new pandemics

We report the emergence of a new production chain for commercial food that aims to maximize profit to the detriment of the environment and traditional communities in the Amazonian region. In addition, the combination of environmental impact and the raising of confined animals (including pigs and poultry), in locations where the animals may have contact with other diseases carries the danger of generating a new pandemic of worldwide proportions.

Forest fires and deforestation in the central Amazon: Effects of landscape and climate on spatial and temporal dynamics

Forest fires and deforestation are the main threats to the Amazon forest. Extreme drought events exacerbate the impact of forest fire in the Amazon, and these drought events are predicted to become more frequent due to climate change. Fire escapes into the forest from agriculture and pasture areas. We assessed the potential drivers of deforestation and forest fires in the central Brazilian Amazon and show that over a period of 31 years (1985-2015) forest fires occurred only in years of extreme drought induced by El Niño (1997, 2009 and 2015). The association of forest fires with strong El Niños shows the vulnerability of forest to climate change. The areas deforested were closely associated with navigable rivers: 62% of the total deforestation from 2000 to 2018 was located within the 2 km of rivers. There was a notable increase in deforestation and forest fire during the 2015 El Niño in comparison to previous years. Only a small part of the forest that burned was deforested in the years following the wildfires: 7% (1997), 3% (2009) and 1.5% (2015). Forest close to roads, rivers and established deforestation is susceptible to deforestation and fire since these areas are attractive for agriculture and pasture. Indigenous land was shown to be important in protecting the forest, while rural settlement projects attracted both forest fire and deforestation. Of the total area in settlement projects, 40% was affected by forest fires and 17% was deforested. Rivers are particularly important for deforestation in this part of Amazonia, and efforts to protect forest along the rivers are therefore necessary. The ability to predict where deforestation and fires are most likely to occur is important for designing policies for preventative actions.

Worldwide Research on Land Use and Land Cover in the Amazon Region

Land cover is an important descriptor of the earth’s terrestrial surface. It is also crucial to determine the biophysical processes in global environmental change. Land-use change showcases the management of the land while revealing what motivated the alteration of the land cover. The type of land use can represent local economic and social benefits, framed towards regional sustainable development. The Amazon stands out for being the largest tropical forest globally, with the most extraordinary biodiversity, and plays an essential role in climate regulation. The present work proposes to carry out a bibliometric analysis of 1590 articles indexed in the Scopus database. It uses both Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer software for the evaluation of author keywords, authors, and countries. The method encompasses (i) search criteria, (ii) search and document compilation, (iii) software selection and data extraction, and (iv) data analysis. The results classify the main research fields into nine main topics with increasing relevance: ‘Amazon’, ‘deforestation’, ‘remote sensing’, ‘land use and land cover change’, and ‘land use’. In conclusion, the cocitation authors’ network reveals the development of such areas and the interest they present due to their worldwide importance.

Environmental Threats over Amazonian Indigenous Lands

This study investigates the main threats related to environmental degradation that affect Amazonian Indigenous Lands (ILs). Through a cluster analysis, we group ILs according to the set of common environmental threats that occur within and outside their limits. The results show that most of the 383 ILs are affected internally by a combination of different environmental threats, namely: deforestation, forest degradation, fires, mining, croplands, pastures, and roads. However, the ILs affected by multiple and relatively severe threats are mainly located in the arc of deforestation and the Roraima state. The threats related to forest loss (deforestation, forest degradation, and fires) are more intense in the ILs’ buffer zones than within, showing that ILs effectively promote environmental preservation. In the cluster analysis, we identified seven clusters that are characterized by common environmental threats within and around their limits, and, based on these results, we have outlined four environmental policy priorities to be strengthened and applied in Amazonian ILs: protecting ILs’ buffer zones; strengthening surveillance actions, and combating illegal deforestation, forest degradation, and mining activities in ILs; preventing and fighting fires; and removing invaders from all ILs in the Amazon. In this study, we warn that the threats presented make the Indigenous peoples in the Amazon more vulnerable. To guarantee indigenous peoples’ rights, illegal actions in these territories and their surroundings must be contained, and quickly.

Climate, landscape diversity, and food sovereignty in arid Australia: The firestick farming hypothesis

OBJECTIVE

Climate change has long been recognized as a significant driver of dietary diversity and dietary quality. An often overlooked aspect of climate change are shifts in fire regimes, which have the potential to drastically affect landscape diversity, species distributions, and ultimately, human diets. Here, we investigate whether the fire regimes shaped by Indigenous Australians change landscape diversity in ways that improve dietary quality, considering both the diversity and the quantity of traditional foods in the diet.

METHODS

We use structural equation modeling to explore two causal models of dietary quality, one focused on the direct effects of climate change and resource depression, the other incorporating the dietary effects of landscape diversity, itself a product of fire-created patchiness. We draw on a focal camp dataset covering 10 years of observations of Martu foraging income in the Western Desert of Australia.

RESULTS

We find strong support for the hypothesis that fire-created patchiness improves diet quality. Climate change (cumulative 2-year rainfall) has only an indirect effect on dietary quality; the availability of traditional foods is mediated primarily through the landscape diversity shaped by fire.

CONCLUSIONS

Our model suggests that the loss of the indigenous fire mosaic may lead to worsening availability of traditional foods, measured as both caloric intake and diet diversity. Because the effects of rainfall are mediated through landscape diversity, increased rainfall may not compensate for the recent changes in fire regimes resulting from the loss of Aboriginal fire from the landscape.

Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

In this paper, we draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that indigenous territories, when granted full property rights, will be effective at curbing deforestation. Using satellite data, we test the effect of property rights on deforestation between 1982 and 2016. In order to identify causal effects, we combine a regression discontinuity design with the orthogonal timing of homologation. We find that observations inside territories with full property rights show a significant decrease in deforestation, while the effect does not exist in territories without full property rights. While these are local average treatment effects, our results suggest that not only do indigenous territories serve a human-rights role, but they are a cost-effective way for governments to preserve their forested areas. First, obtaining full property rights is crucial to recognize indigenous peoples' original right to land and protect their territories from illegal deforestation. Second, when implemented, indigenous property rights reduce deforestation inside indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest, and could provide an important positive externality for Brazil and the rest of the world in terms of climate change mitigation.

Forest Cover Change and the Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Himalaya since 1998

Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot, has undergone considerable forest cover fluctuation in recent decades, and numerous protected areas (PAs) have been established to prohibit forest degradation there. However, the spatiotemporal characteristics of this forest cover change across the whole region are still unknown, as are the effectiveness of its PAs. Therefore, here, we first mapped the forest cover of Himalaya in 1998, 2008, and 2018 with high accuracy (>90%) using a random forest (RF) algorithm based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied with eight control variables to balance the heterogeneity of land characteristics inside and outside PAs. The effectiveness of PAs in Himalaya was quantified based on matched samples. The results showed that the forest cover in Himalaya increased by 4983.65 km2 from 1998 to 2008, but decreased by 4732.71 km2 from 2008 to 2018. Further analysis revealed that deforestation and reforestation mainly occurred at the edge of forest tracts, with over 55% of forest fluctuation occurring below a 2000 m elevation. Forest cover changes in PAs of Himalaya were analyzed; these results indicated that about 56% of PAs had a decreasing trend from 1998 to 2018, including the Torsa (Ia PA), an area representative of the most natural conditions, which is strictly protected. Even so, as a whole, PAs in Himalaya played a positive role in halting deforestation.

Stability and Change within Indigenous Land Use in the Ecuadorian Amazon

In the Amazon basin and other tropical forest regions, many forested landscapes are inhabited by indigenous peoples who are increasingly exposed to infrastructure expansion, large-scale natural resource extraction, and development programs. How indigenous land use evolves in this context will be a critical determinant of the future of these forests. To date, few studies have had access to longitudinal, large-sample and field-based data that enables the measurement of indigenous land use change and its correlates in these contexts. To address this lacuna, we make use of a unique multi-ethnic household survey conducted in 32 indigenous communities of the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon in 2001 and again with the same households in 2012. We analyze these data to measure land use and land use change as well as their determinants. This reveals that the overall household agropastoral footprint has remained close to constant over time, but with important changes within particular land uses and ethnicities. Notably, cacao has largely replaced coffee (tracking commodity price changes), and Kichwa and Shuar households have intensified production on increasingly subdivided plots, with the Shuar specializing in cattle. In contrast, Waorani and Cofán households have maintained small footprints, while Secoya households largely abandoned cattle ranching. Taken together, the results emphasize ethnic heterogeneity in indigenous land use change, a pattern which is only visible through the use of a longitudinal, large-sample, field-based design.

D, Blake J, Lima MGM, Sampaio R, Percequillo AR, Peters F, Payán E, Borges LHM, Calouro AM, Endo W, Pitman RL, Haugaasen T, Silva DA, de Melo FR, de Moura ALB, Costa HCM, Lugarini C, de Sousa IG, Nienow S, Santos F, Mendes-Oliveiras AC, Del Toro-Orozco W, D'Amico AR, Albernaz AL, Ravetta A, do Carmo ECO, Ramalho E, Valsecchi J, Giordano AJ, Wallace R, Macdonald DW, Sollmann R. Wild dogs at stake: deforestation threatens the only Amazon endemic canid, the short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis)

The persistent high deforestation rate and fragmentation of the Amazon forests are the main threats to their biodiversity. To anticipate and mitigate these threats, it is important to understand and predict how species respond to the rapidly changing landscape. The short-eared dog Atelocynus microtis is the only Amazon-endemic canid and one of the most understudied wild dogs worldwide. We investigated short-eared dog habitat associations on two spatial scales. First, we used the largest record database ever compiled for short-eared dogs in combination with species distribution models to map species habitat suitability, estimate its distribution range and predict shifts in species distribution in response to predicted deforestation across the entire Amazon (regional scale). Second, we used systematic camera trap surveys and occupancy models to investigate how forest cover and forest fragmentation affect the space use of this species in the Southern Brazilian Amazon (local scale). Species distribution models suggested that the short-eared dog potentially occurs over an extensive and continuous area, through most of the Amazon region south of the Amazon River. However, approximately 30% of the short-eared dog's current distribution is expected to be lost or suffer sharp declines in habitat suitability by 2027 (within three generations) due to forest loss. This proportion might reach 40% of the species distribution in unprotected areas and exceed 60% in some interfluves (i.e. portions of land separated by large rivers) of the Amazon basin. Our local-scale analysis indicated that the presence of forest positively affected short-eared dog space use, while the density of forest edges had a negative effect. Beyond shedding light on the ecology of the short-eared dog and refining its distribution range, our results stress that forest loss poses a serious threat to the conservation of the species in a short time frame. Hence, we propose a re-assessment of the short-eared dog's current IUCN Red List status (Near Threatened) based on findings presented here. Our study exemplifies how data can be integrated across sources and modelling procedures to improve our knowledge of relatively understudied species.

The role of forest conversion, degradation, and disturbance in the carbon dynamics of Amazon indigenous territories and protected areas

For decades, Amazon indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have impeded deforestation and associated greenhouse gas emissions. While emissions inside indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs) remain well below levels outside, unsustainable forest clearing is on the rise across the nine-nation region. In addition, Amazon ITs and PNAs are increasingly vulnerable to the less conspicuous (and often-neglected) processes of forest degradation and disturbance, which diminish carbon storage and ecological integrity. The trend toward weakening of environmental protections, indigenous land rights, and the rule of law thus poses an existential threat to IPLCs and their territories. Reversing this trend is critical for the future of climate-buffering Amazon forests and the success of the Paris Agreement.

Maintaining the abundance of carbon stored aboveground in Amazon forests is central to any comprehensive climate stabilization strategy. Growing evidence points to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) as buffers against large-scale carbon emissions across a nine-nation network of indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs). Previous studies have demonstrated a link between indigenous land management and avoided deforestation, yet few have accounted for forest degradation and natural disturbances—processes that occur without forest clearing but are increasingly important drivers of biomass loss. Here we provide a comprehensive accounting of aboveground carbon dynamics inside and outside Amazon protected lands. Using published data on changes in aboveground carbon density and forest cover, we track gains and losses in carbon density from forest conversion and degradation/disturbance. We find that ITs and PNAs stored more than one-half (58%; 41,991 MtC) of the region’s carbon in 2016 but were responsible for just 10% (−130 MtC) of the net change (−1,290 MtC). Nevertheless, nearly one-half billion tons of carbon were lost from both ITs and PNAs (−434 MtC and −423 MtC, respectively), with degradation/disturbance accounting for >75% of the losses in 7 countries. With deforestation increasing, and degradation/disturbance a neglected but significant source of region-wide emissions (47%), our results suggest that sustained support for IPLC stewardship of Amazon forests is critical. IPLCs provide a global environmental service that merits increased political protection and financial support, particularly if Amazon Basin countries are to achieve their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Long-term effects of cultural filtering on megafauna species distributions across China

Human activities currently play a dominant role in shaping and eroding Earth's biodiversity, but the historical dynamics leading to this situation are poorly understood and contentious. Importantly, these dynamics are often studied and discussed without an emphasis on cultural evolution, despite its potential importance for past and present biodiversity dynamics. Here, we investigate whether cultural filtering, defined as the impact of cultural evolution on species presence, has driven the range dynamics of five historically widespread megafauna taxa (Asiatic elephant, rhinoceroses, tiger, Asiatic black bear, and brown bear) across China over the past 2 millennia. Data on megafauna and sociocultural history were compiled from Chinese administrative records. While faunal dynamics in China are often linked to climate change at these time scales, our results reveal cultural filtering as the dominant driver of range contractions in all five taxa. This finding suggests that the millennia-long spread of agricultural land and agricultural intensification, often accompanied by expansion of the Han culture, has been responsible for the extirpation of these megafauna species from much of China. Our results suggest that cultural filtering is important for understanding society's role in the assembly of contemporary communities from historical regional species pools. Our study provides direct evidence that cultural evolution since ancient times has overshadowed climate change in shaping broadscale megafauna biodiversity patterns, reflecting the strong and increasing importance of sociocultural processes in the biosphere.

Characterizing the Indigenous Forest Peoples of Latin America: Results from Census Data

Indigenous populations in Latin America are central to regional and global efforts toward achieving socially and environmentally sustainable development. However, existing demographic research on indigenous forest peoples (IFPs) has many limitations, including a lack of comparable cross-national evidence. We address this gap by linking representative census microdata to satellite-derived tree cover estimates for nine countries in the region. Our analyses describe the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of IFPs, and draw comparisons with reference groups. Our first goal is to examine within- and between-population variation in the age structure, human capital attainment, and economic status of IFPs. We then analyze patterns of fertility among indigenous forest-dwelling women and comparison groups. Finally, we examine the association between migration patterns and tree cover among indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Findings demonstrate that Latin America's IFPs are materially deprived and characterized by high fertility levels overall. Importantly for sustainable development efforts, we show that non-indigenous forest-dwellers outnumber IFPs by more than eight to one and that IFPs have lower fertility than their non-indigenous counterparts when other characteristics are accounted for. Additionally, we find that most in-migrants to heavily-forested areas are non-indigenous, and that in-migrants tend to settle in areas that are forested but have few indigenous inhabitants. These results provide new cross-national evidence on the state of IFPs in Latin America, and highlight the need to empower these groups in the face of growing social and environmental crises in the region.

The Spill Over of Crime from Urban Centers: An Account of the Changing Spatial Distribution of Violent Crime in Guyana

As the rate of crime decelerates in the developed world, the opposite phenomenon is being observed in the developing world, including Latin America and the Caribbean. Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean has been concentrated in urban settings, but the expertise for studying crime and providing guidance on policing remain heavily rooted in the developed world. A hindrance to studying crime in the developing world is the difficulty in obtaining official data, allowing for generalizations on where crime is concentrated to persist. This paper tackles two challenges facing crime analysis in the developing world: the availability of data and an examination of whether crime is concentrated in urban settings. We utilized newspaper archival data to study the spatial distribution of crime in Guyana, South America, across the landscape, and in relation to rural indigenous villages. Three spatial analysis tools, hotspot analysis, mean center, and standard deviation ellipse were used to examine the changing distribution of crime across 20 years. Based on 3900 reports of violent crime, our analyses suggest that the center of the gravity of crime changed over the years, spilling over to indigenous peoples’ landscapes. An examination of murder, where firearms and bladed weapons were the weapons of choice, suggests that these weapons moved beyond the coastal zone. The movement of weapons away from the coast raises concerns for the security of indigenous peoples and their associated wildlife. Our analysis suggests that policing measures should seek to extend towards Amerindian landscapes, and this is perhaps indicative of Latin American states with demographics similar to Guyana’s.

Engineering biodiversity as a model for the species conservation

Early humans have domesticated plant and animal species based on ancient empirical concepts (Darwin 1868, 1876). In 1886, Mendel established a new paradigm of hereditary laws (Mendel 1866, 1870, 1950) based on genotypic and phenotypic traits of cross-compatible species, establishing a complex breeding technology that is currently utilized for the development of most food and livestock-derived products. Recently, studies on deciphering the double-helical structure (Watson and Crick 1953a, b) and how to restrict DNA (Arber 2012) have established the foundation of recombinant DNA technology. A new era is paving the way for genetic manipulation of important traits among all the kingdom's organisms, allowing for the development of innovative and widely utilized products for the agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical production sectors (Mc Elroy 2003, 2004, ISAAA 2016).

Are Mayan community forest reserves effective in fulfilling people's needs and preserving tree species?

Mayan community forest reserves (MCFR) play an important role in agricultural landscapes in Mexico, as they provide forest products and a broad variety of benefits that contribute to improving local people's livelihoods. Nevertheless, academia has generally considered conservation and use of forest resources to be incompatible. We describe the spatial configuration of MCFR, evaluate floristic and structural characteristics of woody vegetation present in selected reserves, and identify social norms that govern use and conservation of MCFR. These reserves largely consist of mature vegetation (80% of total cover); their plant structure is similar to that of the surrounding tropical sub-deciduous forest; and they house a large number of endemic species. The MCFR studied contain a total of 146 tree species and cover 11% of the study area, which includes at least 140 villages in the north-central part of the Yucatan Peninsula. These reserves are collectively managed and conserved by Mayan peasants in the interest of the common good. The communities in our study area combine conservation and use of forest resources, and we recommend that in public policy, government agencies and NGOs incorporate MCFR as a model of biological conservation and sustainable natural resource use, taking into account traditional knowledge and local norms that allow these reserves to function in a sustainable manner.