In an article, they talk about expanding protected areas, improving legislation and investing in forest restoration
The preservation policies adopted in the Atlantic Forest may be essential for the conservation of the Amazon. This is one of the conclusions of a analysis made by researchers from SOS Mata Atlântica, Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, University of Oxford and UEFS (State University of Feira de Santana).
According to the researchers, it is necessary to implement the measures “urgently” for “contain the advances towards the tipping point, deal with the climate emergency and guarantee the supply of ecosystem services🇧🇷 They talk about expanding protected areas, improving legislation to achieve zero deforestation and investing in forest restoration.
The article “Atlantic Forest Governance Lessons for the Preservation of the Amazon” was published this week in the scientific journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation🇧🇷 Here’s the full (1 MB).
The analysis was conducted by Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto (SOS Mata Atlântica), Joice Ferreira (Embrapa Amazônia Oriental), Erika Berenguer (University of Oxford) and Marcos Rosa (UEFS).
According to the researchers, containing forest loss is a priority. However, you also need to restore the forest. They highlighted that the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest have different conservation situations, “but both are among the most important rainforests in the world🇧🇷
The Atlantic Forest is, according to the text, the most devastated biome in Brazil. Only 29% of its original vegetation cover is preserved intact.
🇧🇷This state of threat was already installed during the occupation of Brazil by the Europeans in 1500, and is the result of the economic cycles that the country has experienced since then”reads in the article.
The large-scale deforestation of the Amazon, in turn, “started only in the last decades, mainly from 1970🇧🇷 Although the biome has 80% of the original vegetation intact, the researchers warned that the year 2021 recorded the highest level of deforestation in the last decade.
🇧🇷The Amazon hosted one of the most successful initiatives to control forest loss in the tropics, which led to an 80% reduction in deforestation levels between 2004 and 2012,” the review authors wrote. 🇧🇷The plan was abandoned by previous federal administrations, and the current administration has weakened environmental policies.🇧🇷
For researchers, it is important to create contiguous protected areas on public lands with high forest cover. 🇧🇷The conservation of a large part of the Atlantic Forest is the result of a strategy with these characteristics”, says the study.
Protected areas should also be created in the “hotspots” of deforestation,as a way to complement the larger and contiguous areas🇧🇷 According to the analysis, “conservation should be complemented with private reserves🇧🇷
The authors said it was vital to adopt more policy tools to reduce deforestation beyond the Native Vegetation Protection Law.
🇧🇷The Atlantic Forest Law, published in 2006, is a unique law that protects the biome in Brazil, playing a very important role in reducing deforestation”, they wrote. The legislation determines that deforestation in advanced stages is authorized only in case of public interest or for social purposes, and must be compensated.
The law is not zero deforestation and, therefore, should be revised in the opinion of researchers. 🇧🇷The climate emergency and international commitments are contexts that also apply to the Amazon, so the lessons, successes and limitations of the Atlantic Forest Law should support a similar law for the Amazon”, they said.
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