Trends in Amazon land change Gilberto Câmara National Institute for Space Research Brazil

source: Global Land Project (2010) Land change < 10% of total GHG emissions in 2010 Global GHG emissions

Brazil’s recent growth and reduced inequality

Nature, 29 July 2010

Brazil is the world’s current largest experiment on land change and its effects: will it also happen elsewhere? Today’s questions about Brazil could be tomorrow’s questions for other countries Brazil is the world’s current largest experiment on land change and its effects: will it also happen elsewhere? Today’s questions about Brazil could be tomorrow’s questions for other countries

T2 – Loss of smaller trees How does deforestation happen? T1 – Selective logging T3 – Loss >50% of forestT4 – Loss >90% of forest

Final = Clear cut Pasture

Floresta time dialy deforestation alerts Yearly rates of clear cuts INPE’s Monitoring Systems

Daily warnings of newly deforested large areas Real-time Deforestation Monitoring

Finding: Transparency builds governance! CBERS image Science (27 April 2007): “ Brazil´s monitoring system is the envy of the world ”. Deforestation Degradation

Finding: Protected areas deter deforestation

Finding: Deforestation is becoming harder to detect Proportion of clear cuts by size (ha) Clearings less than 50 ha: 35% of total in 2002 to 80% of total in 2010

Almost all deforestation is illegal Finding: Command and control actions are effective means to curb deforestation

“By 2020, Brazil will reduce deforestation by 80% relative to 2005.” (pres. Lula in Copenhagen COP-15)

Transparency builds governance! Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia ( ) dropped from 27,000 km 2 to 6,200 km 2

“Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down by a whopping 78% from its recent high in If Brazil can maintain that progress, it would be the biggest environmental success story in decades, and would set an example to other countries that want to protect their tropical forests.” (Editorial, 7 June 2012)

Deforestation and price trends

Prices or policies? Deforestation Slowdown in the Legal Amazon: Prices or Policies? climatepolicyinitiative.org

Prices or policies? Deforestation Slowdown in the Legal Amazon: Prices or Policies? climatepolicyinitiative.org “Our analysis shows that approximately half of the deforestation that was avoided in the Amazon in the 2005 through 2009 period can be attributed to conservation policies introduced in the second half of the 2000s. This is equivalent to an avoided loss of 62,000 km2 of forest area, or approximately 620 million tons of stored C (2.3 billion tons of stored CO 2 ), which our estimates value at US$ 11.5 billion US dollars.” (Pinho et al., 2012)

What happened with km2 deforested? TerraClass - first map of land use and land cover of Amazonia

Pasto limpo Nível inédito de detalhe espacial: 20 m (CBERS) e 30 m (LANDSAT)

Agriculture (grains)

Cleared pasture

Degraded pasture

Small-scale agriculture

Degraded land

How are we using the forest?

ClassTOTAL (km 2 ) Clean Pasture ,9446,7% Secundary Vegetation ,3121,0% Dirty pasture ,758,7% Regeneration with pasture ,376,7% Non-observed areas ,276,3% Agriculture (large-scale) ,244,9% Small farms and settlers ,573,4% Urban areas 3.818,140,5% Mining 730,680,1% Degraded areas 594,190,1% Others 477,880,1% Desflorestation ,641,6% TOTAL ,99

Até 10% % 20 – 30% 30 – 40% 40 – 50% 50 – 60% 60 – 70% 70 – 80% 80 – 90% 90 – 100% Illegal large farms have to recover 80% of area Brazil new Forest Code

Floresta (biomass after 5 years) 200,000 km2 (30% of area) Clear-cut areas Potential for CO2 sink in Amazonia 10 Gt CO 2 eq ( )

Impact of reforestation in Amazonia (30% of deforestation recovers from ) World’s emission growth in fossil fuels (2% a.a) ( ) Net sink in Amazonia ( ) From 2015 to 2020, reforestation in Amazonia could stabilize global emissions (we could stop the world’s emissions clock) 12 Gt CO2eq 10 Gt CO2eq

(40% of deforestation recovers from ) = sink of 6 GtCO 2 eq