Brazil launches major push for sustainable palm oil in the Amazon

The palm oil program marks a new focus for Brazil, which currently produces about 110,000 metric tons of crude palm oil per year, a fraction of the amount produced by market leaders Indonesia (16.9 million metric tons in 2008) and Malaysia (15.8 m tons), according to the FAO.

Photo courtesy of Dennis Clark/Flickr

Amazon hydro plants among most polluting in the world

Amazon hydro plants are some of the most polluting on the planet. Decomposing vegetation in the reservoir releases methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Belo Monte alone will be a big methane producer, but if an additional dam is built upstream – as many fear – the projects together will release as many greenhouse gases as three average-sized coal plants.

Photo courtesy of Alice Cassell/Flickr

Brazil tackles deforestation of its savanna

Officials will use satellites to monitor the ecosystem known as the Cerrado, Minister Carlos Minc said, while imposing fines and offering incentives to encourage preservation of what has become Brazil's main grain-producing area.

Photo courtesy of PSantaRosa/Flickr

Amazon rainforest will bear cost of biofuel policies in Brazil

Business-as-usual agricultural expansion to meet biofuel production targets for 2020 will take a heavy toll on Brazil's Amazon rainforest in coming years, undermining the potential emissions savings of transitioning from fossil fuels to biofuels, warns a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Photo courtesy of Andre Penner/AP

Rethinking Deforestation – A Copenhagen Challenge

Some of the poorest people in the world reside in the regions in and around the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. To survive, they cut down the trees and sell them. Although there have been attempts to ‘block’ this wood from international markets, these efforts have not been successful. Once the trees are cut down, cattle farmers move in and once the land has been over-grazed and the cattle move on, farmers often begin growing soybeans.

[Photograph by: Rhett Butler/Mongabay]

Climate conference: The view from Sao Paulo

Want to Save the Amazon? Try Looking Closer to Home

The Amazon jungle is metaphorically referred to as the lungs of the world: CO2 in, O2 out, transformed through a dense emerald mass. It's an irreplaceable treasure, in many spots still unmapped, and a biological preserve filled with species that we likely haven’t even seen.

[Photograph by: JorgeBrazil]

No more biofuels for Amazonia

The measure seeks to avoid deforestation, particularly, slash-and-burn agriculture, and avoid the crop from moving on agricultural areas where food is produced.

[Photograph by: Andre Penner/AP]