section_path: Conservation and climate change
section_name: Conservation and climate change
paragraph_text: Conservation and climate change
  
  Environmentalists are concerned about loss of biodiversity that will result from destruction of the forest, and also about the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, which could accelerate global warming. Amazonian evergreen forests account for about 10% of the world's terrestrial primary productivity and 10% of the carbon stores in ecosystems – of the order of 1.1 × 10 metric tonnes of carbon. Amazonian forests are estimated to have accumulated 0.62 ± 0.37 tons of carbon per hectare per year between 1975 and 1996. In 2021 it was reported that the Amazon for the first time emitted more greenhouse gases than it absorbed. Though often referenced as producing more than a quarter of the Earth's oxygen, this often stated, but misused statistic actually refers to oxygen turnover. The net contribution of the ecosystem is approximately zero.
  
  One computer model of future climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions shows that the Amazon rainforest could become unsustainable under conditions of severely reduced rainfall and increased temperatures, leading to an almost complete loss of rainforest cover in the basin by 2100., and severe economic, natural capital and ecosystem services impacts of not averting the tipping point. However, simulations of Amazon basin climate change across many different models are not consistent in their estimation of any rainfall response, ranging from weak increases to strong decreases. The result indicates that the rainforest could be threatened through the 21st century by climate change in addition to deforestation.
  
  In 1989, environmentalist C.M. Peters and two colleagues stated there is economic as well as biological incentive to protecting the rainforest. One hectare in the Peruvian Amazon has been calculated to have a value of $6820 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $1000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $148 if used as cattle pasture.
  
  As indigenous territories continue to be destroyed by deforestation and ecocide (such as in the Peruvian Amazon), indigenous peoples ' rainforest communities continue to disappear, while others, like the Urarina continue to struggle to fight for their cultural survival and the fate of their forested territories. Meanwhile, the relationship between non-human primates in the subsistence and symbolism of indigenous lowland South American peoples has gained increased attention, as have ethno-biology and community-based conservation efforts.
  
  From 2002 to 2006, the conserved land in the Amazon rainforest almost tripled and deforestation rates dropped up to 60%. About 1,000,000 km (250,000,000 acres) have been put onto some sort of conservation, which adds up to a current amount of 1,730,000 km (430,000,000 acres).
  
  In April 2019, the Ecuadorian court stopped oil exploration activities in 180,000 hectares (440,000 acres) of the Amazon rainforest.
  
  In July 2019, the Ecuadorian court forbade the government to sell territory with forests to oil companies.
  
  In September 2019, the US and Brazil agreed to promote private-sector development in the Amazon. They also pledged a $100m biodiversity conservation fund for the Amazon led by the private sector. Brazil's foreign minister stated that opening the rainforest to economic development was the only way to protect it.
  
  A 2009 study found that a 4 °C rise (above pre-industrial levels) in global temperatures by 2100 would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest while a temperature rise of 3 °C would kill some 75% of the Amazon.
  
  A new study by an international team of environmental scientists in the Brazilian Amazon shows that protection of freshwater biodiversity can be increased by up to 600% through integrated freshwater-terrestrial planning.
  
  Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest region has a negative impact on local climate. It was one of the main causes of the severe drought of 2014–2015 in Brazil. This is because the moisture from the forests is important to the rainfall in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Half of the rainfall in the Amazon area is produced by the forests.
  
  Results of a 2021 scientific synthesis indicate that, in terms of global warming, the Amazon basin with the Amazon rainforest is currently emitting more greenhouse gases than it absorbs overall. Climate change impacts and human activities in the area – mainly wildfires, current land-use and deforestation – are causing a release of forcing agents that likely result in a net warming effect.
  
  In 2022 the supreme court of Ecuador decided that ""under no circumstances can a project be carried out that generates excessive sacrifices to the collective rights of communities and nature." It also required the government to respect the opinion of Indigenous peoples of the Americas about different industrial projects on their land. Advocates of the decision argue that it will have consequences far beyond Ecuador. In general, ecosystems are in better shape when indigenous peoples own or manage the land.
  
  Due to the conservation policies of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first 10 months of 2023 deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon decreased by around 50% compared to the same period in 2022. This was despite a severe drought, one of the worst on record, that exacerbated the situation. Climate change, El Nino, deforestation increases the likelihood of drought condition in the Amazon.
  
  According to Amazon Conservation's MAAP forest monitoring program, the deforestation rate in the Amazon from the January 1 to November 8, 2023, decreased by 56% in comparison to the same period in 2022. The main cause is the decline in deforestation rate in Brazil, due to the government's policies, while Columbia, Peru and Bolivia also reduced deforestation.
  
  In January 2024 published data showed a 50% decline in deforestation rate in the Amazon rainforest and 43% rise in vegetation loss in the neighbor Cerrado during the year of 2023 in comparison to 2022. Both biomes together lose 12,980 km², 18% less than in 2022.