Large parts of Amazon may never recover, major study says

It found that only two of the nine, tiny Suriname and French Guiana, have at least half their forests still intact.

Amazonian Indigenous organisations representing 511 nations and allies are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025.

The 80% target is a massive challenge given that only 74% of the original forest remains. Urgent action is needed not only to protect the forest still standing but also to restore degraded land and get back to that 80% level.

“It’s difficult but doable,” said Alicia Guzmán, an Ecuadorian scientist who coordinated the report. “It is all dependent on the involvement of the Indigenous communities and people who live in the forest. That and the debt.”

Guzmán said giving Indigenous groups stewardship of more land – and crucially, providing state protection for it and removing legal loopholes that allow extractive industries in – was the surest way to guarantee preservation.

Almost half the Amazon has been designated either a protected area or Indigenous territory, and only 14% of all deforestation takes place there. Currently, about 100m hectares of Indigenous land are under dispute or awaiting formal government recognition.

“Having Indigenous people in the decision-making process means we count on the knowledge of those who know most about the forest,” said Guzmán. “And they need budgets.”

They also need their land to be safeguarded from land-grabbers and extractive industries.

Mining is one of the growing threats, with protected areas and Indigenous land among the areas most coveted by prospectors. Much of the mining is clandestine and illegal but around half in protected areas is done legally, and scientists called on governments to reject or revoke mining permits....

https://www.raisg.org/en/radar/large-parts-of-amazon-may-never-recover-m...