Through its Andes-Amazon Initiative, the Moore Foundation has been supporting a joint effort by Brazilian NGOs Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia and Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia to develop and operationalize an integrated wed-based portal for Brazilian Amazonian protected areas. The portal helps identify threats and opportunities for forest conservation, to inform federal and state agency action.
As a result of this project, Imazon and IPAM have just released a new modelling tool, which integrates multiple factors — including illegal roads, hydroelectric plants, soil quality and type of terrain — to identify existing deforestation and deforestation threats. As Imazon’s Carlos Souza, Jr. explains, the idea is to document incursions already underway as well as imminent threats, and also to help predict what would follow in future years. With these forecasts, the hope is to prevent otherwise likely deforestation.
According to a feature article in Folha de S. Paulo, the roads the model tracks represent the single greatest threat: 80 percent of annual deforestation in the Amazon occurs within five kilometers of the roads. “These roads are the beginning of everything: open the road, extract timber…” said Souza.
Read the full story (in Portuguese) here.
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