Brazil can make billions by cultivating Amazon forests: Study

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
20 Jun 2023 14:05

A study shows that repurposing the Amazon forests from being a resource reserve to be exploited to being a resource for fuelling sustainable industries and low-carbon agriculture.

An aerial view showing an illegal dock by a river to remove wood from the Amazon rainforest seen during a flight between Manaus and Manicore, in Amazonas State, Brazil, June 6, 2022 (AFP)

A recently published study, by the Brazil office of the environmental group World Resources Institute (WRI) and the think tank Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, shows that protecting and cultivating Amazon forests would act as a source of proliferating economic growth for Brazil: quantified to make billions in return over the next decades.

Repurposing the Amazon forests from being a resource reserve to be exploited to being a resource for fuelling sustainable industries and low-carbon agriculture; the study shows that it could make $8.4 billion/ year starting in 2050.

Investing in protecting and cultivating the Amazon forests not only would sustain the planet's means of recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen but would 312,000 jobs in the next three decades while saving or restoring an estimated 810,000 square kilometers.

"This study shows that making the Amazon a priority would benefit all Brazilians," said economist Rafael Feltran-Barbieri of WRI Brasil, one of the authors of the study.

"This model, which would make the Amazon the catalyst of decarbonizing the entire Brazilian economy, is without a doubt the biggest economic and social development opportunity in the country's modern history."

Back in May, Brazil reported the largest-ever decrease in deforestation in the Amazon forest, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

This marks the largest decrease since Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva assumed the presidency earlier this year.

According to the agency, the Amazon lost about 126.92 square miles (326.1 square kilometers) to deforestation in April - a considerable improvement given that the month prior recorded a loss of 175.9 square miles to deforestation.

The decline since January has been consistent, the INPE states, noting that deforestation decreased by 40% compared to the same timeframe last year.

Since Lula assumed the Presidency in January, he vowed to address the pervasive issue of heightened deforestation that bloomed during former President Jair Bolsonaro's mandate.