A study presented last Wednesday (August 19), in Brasília, reveals that regions protected by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (Arpa) are potentially capable of reducing carbon emissions in a total 1.1 billion tonnes until 2050, thanks to avoided deforestation.
According to the study - called "Reduction of Carbon Emissions from Deforestation in Brazil: the Role of the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program" -, the potential reduction of emissions in the period would be similar to total global emissions from deforestation in the year 2007, if areas protected by Arpa are capable of reaching a zero deforestation goal by 2050.
The study calculated the amount of carbon stored in 13 protected areas supported by Arpa and compared this data with estimated deforestation in the region if these areas were not protected by the programme. The result showed that areas included in Arpa are responsible for storing 4,6 billion tonnes of carbon, an amount which represents one-tenth of carbon stored in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.
Arpa coordinator Anael Aymoré presented results for 2009 and future perspectives for Arpa's second phase. As well as presenting new expanded goals, Aymoré explained the interaction between Arpa and the Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in Legal Amazon (PPCDAm).
Arpa is coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment and implemented by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), alongside state and municipal Amazon governments who have joined the programme. Arpa is also managed by the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity (Funbio), the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the World Bank, the KfW (a German cooperation bank), the GTZ (a German technical cooperation agency) and WWF-Brazil.
Redes Sociais