Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away: study
Deforestation and climate change could convert Amazon rainforest to savanna by 2050. New infrastructure development would quicken process.
Articles by Claire Asher
Claire has been working as a freelance science writer for the last 2 years, and her writing has appeared in New Scientist, BBCEarth, ScienceNOW and SciDev.Net. She is interested in animal behaviour, ecology and conservation. She also works part-time in science communication at University College London, and runs a science blog in her spare time.
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Intensifying cattle grazing on existing pasture could free up degraded land for new sugarcane plantations without need to clear Amazon forests and other native vegetation.
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Amazon REDD+ scheme side-steps land rights to reward small forest producers
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Small trees in the shade of the canopy are able to thrive during dry spells in the Brazilian Amazon, but those exposed to the sun in forest clearings suffer.
Brazil soy trade linked to widespread deforestation, carbon emissions
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Brazil’s New Forest Code puts vast areas of protected Amazon forest at risk
Weakening of Brazil’s Forest Code by Congress in 2012 and by the Supreme Court in 2018 could free Amazon landowners to clear 15 million hectares of once protected forest: study.
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Extreme floods on the rise in the Amazon: study
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Mega-dam costs outweigh benefits, global building spree should end: experts
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Saving the Amazon has come at the cost of Cerrado deforestation: study
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Deforestation-linked Brazilian beef still flowing into international markets: report
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A river runs through it — and keeps the Amazon’s bird species diverse
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Plant response to rising CO2 levels may alter rainfall patterns across tropics
Increases in greenhouse gas levels are closing plant stomata (tiny pores in leaves); the plants then retain more water, potentially altering tropical rain patterns: study.
Hunting, fishing causing dramatic decline in Amazon river dolphins
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Brazil’s actual forest-related CO2 emissions could blow by Paris pledge
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Drought-driven wildfires on rise in Amazon basin, upping CO2 release
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Andes dams could threaten food security for millions in Amazon basin
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Special series
Forest trackers
- ‘Betting on impunity’: Brazilian Amazon under attack despite logging crackdown
- Indonesia struggles to restore peatlands as fires strangle national parks
- Marijuana cultivation whittling away Madagascar’s largest connected forest
- Illegal logging ‘mafia’ stripping hornbill habitat in Northeast India
Oceans
- Game changer? Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study
- Dorsal de Nasca: Peru pledges to create a huge new marine reserve
- Science-backed policy boosts critically endangered Nassau grouper
- Vanishing sea ice in the Arctic could shake up seabird migrations
Amazon conservation
- Discovery of fish never recorded in the Amazon shows richness of Brazil’s Calha Norte
- Brazil’s indigenous hit especially hard by COVID-19: why so vulnerable?
- World’s top tapir expert prepares for unprecedented Amazon mission
- 38 endangered Brazilian tree species legally traded, poorly tracked: Study
Land rights and extractives
- Cook Islands to grant seabed mining exploration licenses within a year
- Deep-sea mining: An environmental solution or impending catastrophe?
- Locals stage latest fight against PNG mine dumping waste into sea
- Mining company pressing to enter Ecuador’s Los Cedros Protected Forest
Endangered environmentalists
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer
- Deaths, arrests and protests as Philippines re-emerges from lockdown
- In Brazil, COVID-19 outbreak paves way for invasion of indigenous lands
- On anniversary of nun’s murder Amazon land rights activists at high risk
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
- On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
Conservation effectiveness
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
- On a wing and a prayer? Evidence for ways to conserve bats (commentary)
- Audio: The sounds of a rare New Zealand bird reintroduced to its native habitat
- Eavesdrop on forest sounds to effectively monitor biodiversity, researchers say
Southeast asian infrastructure
- Experts see environmental, social fallout in Indonesia’s infrastructure push
- Bornean farmers and fishers brace as a new port opens in their midst
- Indonesian levee project serves industry over community, study says
- Forest clearing proceeds for dam in Sumatra despite locals’ land claims
