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BREAKING: June 2020 saw the highest number of #fires in the Brazilian #Amazon since 2007, indicating that this burning season will be even worse than last year - a direct consequence of high deforestation rates in #Brazil. A thread. (Data obtained from BDQueimadas.)
Deforestation of *primary forests* in the Brazilian #Amazon was very high in 2019, reaching double digits for the first time in 11 years. The loss of primary forests result in very high CO2 emissions and the loss of critical habitat for a number of species.
But since 2011, there is a more cryptic problem continually growing in the Amazon – the loss of secondary forests. Since then, we annually lose more secondary than primary #forests
Figure from this @Imazon paper:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab76db/meta
Figure from this @Imazon paper:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab76db/meta
Secondary forests hold less #carbon stocks and #biodiversity than primary ones, but are crucial for the maintenance of these ecosystem services, especially in areas completely devoided of forests. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14443
Irrespectively of the type of forest loss, #deforestation fires generate a lot of noxious #smoke – last year, one Amazonian state often experienced days with higher levels of particulate matter in the air than the maximum deemed safe by WHO: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340540446_Monitoramento_da_qualidade_do_ar_em_2019_no_Estado_do_Acre
The combination of high deforestation rates, leading to high number of deforestation fires and high concentrations of smoke with a pandemic of a virus that attacks the lungs is the formation of the perfect storm in the region. One that will cost many Amazonians lives.
