Articles

Amazon rainforest is approaching a tipping point of transitioning to a savannah

"Deforestation and climate change, via increasing dry-season length and drought frequency, may already have pushed the Amazon close to a critical threshold of rainforest dieback. ... We find that more than three-quarters of the Amazon rainforest has been losing resilience since the early 2000s, consistent with the approach to a critical transition. Resilience is being lost faster in regions with less rainfall and in parts of the rainforest that are closer to human activity."

Read the paper at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01287-8

Conservation of Earth's biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship

"Indigenous peoples comprise 5% of the world population but protect approximately 85% of its biodiversity through stewardship of indigenous-managed lands. ... Supporting indigenous-led fire stewardship can assist with reviving important cultural practices while protecting human communities from increasingly severe wildfires, enhancing biodiversity, and increasing ecosystem heterogeneity."

Read the paper at: www.pnas.org/content/118/32/e2105073118

United Nations report concludes indigenous peoples of Latin America are, by far, the most effective guardians of rainforest in the region

Read the original report at: www.fao.org/americas/publicaciones-audio-video/forest-gov-by-indigenous/en/

Read a news article discussing this report at www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/25/indigenous-peoples-by-far-the-best-guardians-of-forests-un-report

Wildlife populations have plummeted by two-thirds in 50 years

Natural areas that used to support biodiversity and have been converted for farming are the biggest reason for the population decline of thousands of species around the world. The WWF study has found that the average population size has dropped by 68% worldwide between 1970 and 2016.

Read the original article at: www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/wildlife-populations-biodiversity-loss-human-action

The importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of terrestrial mammals

Council on Foreign Relations: How Brazil’s Burning Amazon Threatens the Climate

Nature and Culture International: Unparalleled in scale, complexity, and diversity, the Amazon stabilizes key processes that are vital to life on Earth.

National Geographic: Rainforest Encyclopedia

Monga Bay: Amazon Destruction

Amazon fires: What's the latest in Brazil? Dark clouds of smoke smothered cities in Brazil as parts of the Amazon burned at a rate not seen in years, and the world responded with outrage.