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☆ Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 57% in September
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Amazon Fund II LP FollowSAO PAULO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell 56.8% in September compared to a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, while the region is struggling with a historic drought. In September, Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva announced at the United Nations Summit in New York more ambitious climate targets for the country. Deforestation and fires usually spike in the Amazon in August and September, when the weather turns drier. Fires in the region last month fell 36%, improving from the worst September in more than a decade in 2022. Last month, Switzerland and the United States donated $8.4 million to Brazil's Amazon Fund to help preserve the world's largest tropical rainforest.

Persons: Ueslei Marcelino, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's, Jair, Marina Silva, Peter Frontini, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon Fund, SAO PAULO, Brazil's, United Nations Summit, Thomson Locations: Seca, Uruara, Para State, Brazil, New York, Switzerland, United States

BERLIN, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The Earth's life-support systems are facing greater risks and uncertainties than ever before, with most major safety limits already crossed as a result of planet-wide human interventions, according to a scientific study released on Wednesday. The authors said crossing the boundaries did not represent a tipping point where human civilisation would just crash, but could bring irreversible shifts in the Earth's support systems. "We can think of Earth as a human body, and the planetary boundaries as blood pressure. Over 120/80 does not indicate a certain heart attack but it does raise the risk," Richardson said. "It is a complete failure ...and it's a large risk... We're still following a pathway that takes us unequivocally to disaster."

Persons: Katherine Richardson, Richardson, Ueslei Marcelino, We're, Johan Rockström, I've, Rockström, Riham, David Stanway, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: University of Copenhagen, REUTERS, Potsdam Institute, Climate Impact, United Nations Global, Thomson Locations: Seca, Uruara, Para State, Brazil, Dubai

☆ Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 66% in August
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In the first eight months of the year, INPE's figures showed, deforestation has fallen a cumulative 48% from the same period of 2022. Brazil last month hosted a major rainforest summit, where eight Amazon nations agreed to a list of unified environmental policies and measures to bolster regional cooperation but failed to agree on a common goal for ending deforestation. "We are experiencing a new moment, with more assertive policies and greater political will in favor of the Amazon," WWF-Brasil's director, Mariana Napolitano, said. But more is still needed, including traceability and transparency in the trade of livestock, gold and other commodities, she added. Reporting by Gabriel Araujo and Peter Frontini; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Bruno Kelly, Marina Silva, INPE, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula, Bolsonaro, Mariana Napolitano, Gabriel Araujo, Peter Frontini, Jonathan Oatis, Sandra Maler Organizations: REUTERS, Environment Ministry, Thomson Locations: Uruara, Para, Brazil

SAO PAULO, July 6 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell 34% in the first half of 2023, preliminary government data showed on Thursday, hitting its lowest level in four years as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva institutes tougher environmental policies. But that's an area more than three times the size of New York City, underscoring the challenge Lula faces to eliminate deforestation entirely. "It's very positive, but we continue to have very high levels of deforestation," said Daniel Silva, an analyst at nonprofit WWF-Brasil. An aerial view shows a deforested area during an operation to combat deforestation near Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 21, 2023. In June alone, Inpe satellite data showed deforestation totaled 663 sq km, down 41% from the same month a year ago.

Persons: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Inpe, Lula, Daniel Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, Ueslei Marcelino, Marina Silva, Silva, Joao Paulo Capobianco, Carolina Pulice, Jake Spring, Gabriel Araujo, Sandra Maler Organizations: SAO PAULO, WWF, Brasil, REUTERS, Environment Ministry, Thomson Locations: New York City, Uruara, Para State, Brazil

An internal Union Investment document seen by Reuters shows that the firm received just 30 responses to its outreach. Although consumer goods manufacturers are particularly exposed, other sectors that import goods associated with deforestation, including commodities houses and industrials companies, will also face scrutiny. Consumer goods makers are counting on technology such as satellites and artificial intelligence to help eradicate deforestation from their supply chains. Several large consumer goods companies say they are close to meeting their ambitious zero-deforestation goals. "The EU rules make deforestation a financial risk as well as an environmental risk."

Persons: Ueslei Marcelino, Henrik Pontzen, Pontzen, Janus Henderson, Jonathan Toub, haven't, Snorre Gjerde, Christophe Hansen, Magdi Batato, Kit Kat, Nestlé, David Croft, Reckitt's, Arild Skedsmo, Richa Naidu, Kate Abnett, Matt Scuffham, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, EU, Germany's, Investment, Unilever, ESG, Union Investment, Nestle, Pepsico, Danone, L'Oreal, KLP, Aviva, Fidelity International, Reckitt, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Consumer, Thomson Locations: Uruara, Para State, Brazil, NBIM, Nescafe, London, Brussels

☆ Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls in first month under Lula
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoSAO PAULO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell in January from a year earlier, satellite data showed on Friday, in the first monthly figures under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In mid-January, Brazilian environmental agents launched their first anti-logging raids under Lula, who has pledged to end surging destruction under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. The fresh figures come after Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday that the United States was considering its first contribution to a multilateral fund aimed at fighting Amazon deforestation, with a possible announcement during President Joe Biden's meeting with Lula at the White House on Friday. The Brazilian-administered Amazon Fund, supported mainly by Norway and Germany, was reactivated by Environment Minister Marina Silva the day she took office last month, after being frozen since 2019 under Bolsonaro. The Brazilian government is also fighting wildcat mining on Yanomami land in the Amazon, its largest indigenous reservation, amid a humanitarian crisis blamed on illegal gold miners.

The sharp contrast with Bolsonaro, who criticized environmental agents, was a relief to some scientists concerned that the retreating Amazon rainforest may be near a point of no return. Ibama's staffing and resources expanded in Lula's 2003-2010 presidency, when he managed to reduce Amazon deforestation by 72%. Rodrigo Agostinho, whom Lula tapped to run Ibama, told Reuters in an interview that the agency now has about 350 active field agents for all of Brazil. That is less than half what it had at the start of Bolsonaro's term and well below the 2,000 field agents at the peak of its powers, he added. Sidelining Ibama, Bolsonaro deployed the military to protect the Amazon, but their inexperience in conservation failed to lower deforestation while running up a massive bill.

Reuters exclusively accompanied raids led by environmental agency Ibama in the rainforest state of Para to stop loggers and ranchers illegally clearing the forest. The agency has also launched raids this week in the states of Roraima and Acre, Ibama environmental enforcement coordinator Tatiane Leite said. Lula on the campaign trail last year pledged to put Ibama back in charge of combating deforestation with beefed-up funding and personnel. But Ibama agents told Reuters that they already felt more empowered by Lula announcing environmental protection as a top priority. His government instituted a gag order forbidding Ibama agents from speaking to the press, which agents say has already been reversed under Lula.

☆ Explainer: What the world's nature-rich nations want out of a global conservation deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File PhotoMONTREAL, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Tangled expanses of Amazon rainforest, high mountains of the Himalayas, and cloud-shrouded forests are just some of the unique landscapes contained within the world's most nature-rich nations. Governments are trying to work out a new global agreement to guide conservation and wildlife protection through 2030 at a U.N. summit in Montreal this week. Of the nearly 200 countries assembled, five are considered to be among the world's most biodiverse nations — measured in the number of unique species. That's more than a third of all the world’s flowering plants, and more than half of all bird and mammal species on Earth. Here's what some of the world's most nature-rich nations want to happen at the talks.

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