{"id":39419,"date":"2023-07-04T13:34:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/radar\/a-standing-amazon-rainforest-could-create-an-8-billion-bioeconomy-study\/"},"modified":"2023-07-04T13:34:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:34:46","slug":"a-standing-amazon-rainforest-could-create-an-8-billion-bioeconomy-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/radar\/a-standing-amazon-rainforest-could-create-an-8-billion-bioeconomy-study\/","title":{"rendered":"A standing Amazon Rainforest could create an $8 billion bioeconomy: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MONGABAY<br \/>\nby\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/by\/sarah-brown\/\" rel=\"tag\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Sarah Brown<\/a>\u00a0on 4 July 2023<\/p>\n<div class=\"bulletpoints\">\n<ul>\n<li><em>The Brazilian Amazon could create an $8 billion bioeconomy each year by preserving the rainforest, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and commercializing regional products, a new study has found.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>If current deforestation and emission trends continue, the Amazon faces irreversible degradation that will devastate Brazil and beyond, experts warn.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Growing the bioeconomy depends on elevating Indigenous knowledge and providing local communities the tools to produce and sell hundreds of forest-grown products.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>It will take an investment of more than $500 billion by 2050 to implement a new economy, but the costs of not doing this \u201ccould be much higher,\u201d say the study authors.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment has long been a shortsighted development strategy in the Amazon Rainforest, pushing the biome to the brink of irreversible degradation. But there is an alternative. Slashing deforestation to zero and decarbonizing the economy not only could keep the forest standing but could also transform the region into a billion-dollar bioeconomy by 2050, a recent study has found.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/research\/new-economy-brazil-amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">study,<\/a>\u00a0conducted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the New Climate Economy and published in June, found that preserving the forest, transitioning to low-carbon agriculture practices and bolstering the bioeconomy would pump an additional 40 billion reais ($8.3 billion) GDP per year into the Legal Amazon region, an administrative region that spans the nine Brazilian states located within the Amazon Basin. The transformation would also generate 312,000 additional jobs that would particularly benefit Black and Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cbusiness-as-usual\u201d scenario based on the deforestation and emission trends of the past 10 years would lead to irreparable environmental damage, economic collapse, and a failure to meet emission reduction targets, leaving the fate of the country hanging in the balance: \u201cThere is no future for Brazil without the Amazon,\u201d the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/files.wri.org\/d8\/s3fs-public\/2023-06\/new-economy-brazil-amazon-executive-summary-english.pdf?VersionId=31LYqZN2z_BRL7xZM5ZPLM2RTARo6D54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">study authors warned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA new approach to the Amazon could save it from destruction while driving robust, equitable growth for Brazil\u2019s economy,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AniDasguptaWRI\/status\/1669348218063441926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">tweeted Ani Dasgupta<\/a>, the president of WRI.<\/p>\n<p>This new approach would also bring environmental benefits. Brazil would have<a href=\"https:\/\/files.wri.org\/d8\/s3fs-public\/2023-06\/new-economy-brazil-amazon-executive-summary-english.pdf?VersionId=31LYqZN2z_BRL7xZM5ZPLM2RTARo6D54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">\u00a081 million hectares<\/a>\u00a0(200 million acres) more standing forest from a combination of restoration efforts and deforestation cutbacks, and the Amazon would emit 94% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, putting Brazil well on track to meet international climate change goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shows that ending deforestation and maintaining the standing forest will not curb development in the Brazilian Amazon. Quite the opposite: It is an opportunity,\u201d according to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/research\/new-economy-brazil-amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">WRI statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270558\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-270558\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195622\/Harvesting-acai-Amapa-768x512.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195622\/Harvesting-acai-Amapa-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195622\/Harvesting-acai-Amapa-610x406.jpg 610w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195622\/Harvesting-acai-Amapa.jpg 800w\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A\u00e7a\u00ed is harvested sustainably from the Amazon Rainforest in the state of Amap\u00e1. A\u00e7a\u00ed makes up a key segment of the bioeconomy. Its status as a \u201csuperfood\u201d drives high international demand for the product. Image \u00a9 Diego Baravelli\/Greenpeace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>Current scenario<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cBusiness as usual cannot continue,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/insights\/zero-amazon-deforestation-can-grow-brazil-gdp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">warned experts from WRI<\/a>. Almost a quarter of the Legal Amazon region in Brazil has already been cleared for economic activities, heavily contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, emissions from land use and agriculture in the Amazon made up more than<a href=\"https:\/\/plataforma.seeg.eco.br\/total_emission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">\u00a0two-thirds<\/a>\u00a0of the country\u2019s total emissions in those sectors.<\/p>\n<p>In the past 30 years, Brazil emitted 67 gigatons of carbon dioxide (GtCO2), 36 gigatons of which were from the Legal Amazon region. To meet the targets in the Paris Agreement, Brazil\u2019s emissions cannot surpass 7.7 GtCO2 from 2020 to 2050, according to the study, which concluded that if current deforestation and emission trends of the last decade continue, the Legal Amazon will lose a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/research\/new-economy-brazil-amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">nother 59 million hectares\u00a0<\/a>(145.8 million acres) \u2014 an area almost twice the size of Italy \u2014 by 2050 and will produce five times above the country\u2019s greenhouse gas limit.<\/p>\n<p>It would push the Amazon to its tipping point, where the rainforest switches from being a carbon sink to a source of carbon emissions. Precipitation would dry up, having a devastating effect on the country\u2019s rainfall-dependent agriculture: \u201c97% of all agricultural land and 100% of pastures depend on rain because we don\u2019t have an alternative irrigation,\u201d Rafael Feltran-Barbieri, a senior economist at WRI Brazil and one of the study authors, told Mongabay by phone.<\/p>\n<p>Despite so much deforestation, many forest-dependent communities don\u2019t reap any economic benefits from resource exploitation. More than 83% of the deforestation in the Amazon is linked to external demands from the rest of Brazil and abroad, mostly for beef, soy and mining.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270557\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-270557\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195618\/Collecting-honey-Amapa-768x512.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195618\/Collecting-honey-Amapa-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195618\/Collecting-honey-Amapa-610x406.jpg 610w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195618\/Collecting-honey-Amapa.jpg 800w\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Honey is collected within communities in the state of Amap\u00e1. The study identified honey as one of the key products that will help develop the bioeconomy in the Amazon region. Image \u00a9 Diego Baravelli\/Greenpeace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>Leveraging existing knowledge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Scaling up the existing bioeconomy, a sustainable economic model that uses renewable biological resources to produce food, industrial goods and energy, could change the Amazon\u2019s socio-economic profile by leveraging existing knowledge within the region. One of the key ways to do this is to allow Indigenous communities to lead the production and commercialization of regional products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody could be more qualified than the traditional and Indigenous people,\u201d Feltran-Barbieri said. \u201cIndigenous knowledge includes hundreds of products and substances that could be exploited in the new bioeconomy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amazonian Indigenous peoples use around 270 plant-based items in daily cooking and eat about 30 insect species \u2014 \u201cthe food of the future,\u201d according to WRI.<\/p>\n<p>The study analyzed just 13 of these primary products, such as a\u00e7a\u00ed, cacao and honey, and concluded that even this small share of potential goods could grow the bioeconomy\u2019s GDP by at least 38.5 billion reais ($8 billion) per year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bioeconomy remains undersized when comparing its current impact and future potential,\u201d the study found. \u201c[It] should be much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270555\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-270555\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195610\/Chico-Mendes-reserve-768x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the state of Acre. This conservation unit allows local communities to harvest and collect products such as rubber and nuts while preserving the rainforest. Image \u00a9 Marizilda Cruppe\/Greenpeace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>A pioneer in the bioeconomy<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The bioeconomy across the Amazon is currently unequal, said Feltran-Barbieri. \u201cSome states are moving towards a new economy, especially those that already have the restoration and bioeconomy program,\u201d he said. \u201cOthers are moving in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Par\u00e1 is trailblazing in the Amazon\u2019s bioeconomy development, according to Feltran-Barbieri, having\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.semas.pa.gov.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/STATE-OF-PAR%C3%81-BIOECONOMY-PLAN-vs.INGLES.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">created a strategy<\/a>\u00a0to make the state carbon-neutral for land use and forests within 15 years by investing in the bioeconomic supply chain, credit lines and education in environmental services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPar\u00e1 will transform from being the state with the highest carbon emissions in Brazil \u2014 due, largely, to land use changes and deforestation \u2014 to being at the vanguard of a new bioeconomy, where forests and biodiversity are a source of income, social inclusion and climate change mitigation,\u201d according to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.semas.pa.gov.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/STATE-OF-PAR%C3%81-BIOECONOMY-PLAN-vs.INGLES.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">state government statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Par\u00e1 is already seeing results from its strategy, including a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliberal.com\/economia\/estudo-destaca-a-oportunidade-de-uma-nova-economia-para-a-regiao-amazonica-1.696111\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">49% drop in greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>\u00a0in the first half of this year compared with the same period the year before.<\/p>\n<p>The states of Amazonas and Rond\u00f4nia are moving in the other direction, Feltran-Barbieri said, both of which have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/g1.globo.com\/google\/amp\/ro\/rondonia\/noticia\/2023\/04\/21\/desmatamento-em-rondonia-cresceu-450percent-em-marco-de-2023-aponta-imazon.ghtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">soaring levels of deforestation<\/a>, striking social inequality and no clear plan for developing a bioeconomy. \u201cRond\u00f4nia state is the worst; it is getting poorer every year with no sanitation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270559\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-270559\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195631\/Mauro-Conference-768x512.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195631\/Mauro-Conference-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/07\/04195631\/Mauro-Conference-1200x800.png 1200w\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The secretary of environment and sustainability of Par\u00e1, Mauro O\u2019 de Almeida, discusses the Par\u00e1 State Bioeconomy Plan, the first of its kind in Brazil, during the Pan-Amazon Bioeconomy Conference held in June in Bel\u00e9m. Image \u00a9 Emanoelle Cecim\/Ascom Semas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>An optimistic outlook<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It will cost Brazil more than 2.6 trillion reais ($541 billion) from now to 2050 to implement a new economic model in the Amazon, on top of the 3.4 trillion reais ($707 billion) to continue as normal. This additional investment would be \u201cless than half of the costs of not promoting the transition,\u201d warned the study authors.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the challenges, moving toward a new development model in the Amazon is highly achievable, experts say.\u00a0 \u201cI think the world is ready to rally to the cause of a new bioeconomy for the Amazon. I believe that investment and social funding will flow to Brazil,\u201d Jeffrey Sachs, U.S. economist,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/valorinternational.globo.com\/economy\/news\/2023\/01\/24\/world-is-ready-for-amazon-bioeconomy-says-jeffrey-sachs.ghtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">told Brazilian\u00a0<\/a>news outlet Valor International \u2014 Globo.<\/p>\n<p>Some experts say this could be as soon as half a decade from now. \u201cIt\u2019ll take 5-10 years for this new economy to reach a sustainable stage,\u201d Carlos Nobre, a climate change expert and forest researcher, told Mongabay by phone. \u201cI\u2019m very optimistic that these investments will really motivate millions of people in the Amazon to move towards this new economy of a standing forest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Banner image: Local communities in the south of the state of Amazonas harvest cacao, the raw ingredient to make chocolate, to produce and sell. Cacao makes up a key part of the region\u2019s bioeconomy and has enormous commercial potential. Image \u00a9 Nilmar Lage\/Greenpeace.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Citation:<\/p>\n<p><em>A New Economy for the Brazilian Amazon<\/em>. (2023). Retrieved from World Resources Institute, the New Climate Economy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/files.wri.org\/d8\/s3fs-public\/2023-06\/new-economy-brazil-amazon-executive-summary-english.pdf?VersionId=31LYqZN2z_BRL7xZM5ZPLM2RTARo6D54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>FEEDBACK:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLScP6kOx20iZFILxoYS1UBbTpsd0OdoPOooYfJmxMScY75S5GQ\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Use this form<\/a>\u00a0to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n<p>Tomado de: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2023\/07\/a-standing-amazon-rainforest-could-create-an-8-billion-bioeconomy-study\/\">https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2023\/07\/a-standing-amazon-rainforest-could-create-an-8-billion-bioeconomy-study\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brazilian Amazon could create an $8 billion bioeconomy each year by preserving the rainforest, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and commercializing regional products, a new study has found.<br \/>\nIf current deforestation and emission trends continue, the Amazon faces irreversible degradation that will devastate Brazil and beyond, experts warn.<br \/>\nGrowing the bioeconomy depends on elevating Indigenous knowledge and providing local communities the tools to produce and sell hundreds of forest-grown products.<br \/>\nIt will take an investment of more than $500 billion by 2050 to implement a new economy, but the costs of not doing this \u201ccould be much higher,\u201d say the study authors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":39416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-radar","category-1","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}