Article by scientists from 18 institutions published by Nature can help conservation action in the Amazon Rainforest A study conducted in Pará by scientists from 18 institutions – all of which comprise the scientific initiative Sustainable Amazon Network (Rede Amazônia Sustentável - RAS), and include 11 Brazilian institutes–, shows that degradation within a forest caused by human activity may be as important a cause of tropical biodiversity losses. The paper "Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation" was published on June 29 by the journal Nature. Researchers consider that it can provide support information to strengthen the Forest Code and improve public policy. The scientists that participated in the study measured the general impact of the most common forest disturbances (forest degradation) caused by human activity, which include wildfires, illegal logging and the fragmentation of remnant forests, using a sample of 1,538 tree species, 460 bird species and 156 dung beetle species. The research was conducted in the last six years both in the fields, in 371 areas spread through three million hectares in Paragominas and Santarém (located in the Northeast and West of Pará state, respectively), and in satellite image analysis laboratories. The data enabled the first comparisons ever made between the loss of species in remnant forest areas caused by anthropogenic disturbance and the one resulting from the loss of habitat due to deforestation (clearcutting). "The study concluded that, in Pará, the biodiversity loss estimated based on the current state of forest degradation is equivalent to the loss due to deforestation since 1988", reports the researcher Joice Ferreira, from Embrapa Eastern Amazon (PA), one of the authors of the publication. The discovery of such equivalence led scientists to verify that biodiversity loss in Pará is twice the size previously estimated. "Considering the estimated loss of species through degradation, it is like nearly another 140,000 km2 of intact forest had been felled", the researcher compares, refering to the deforestation rate in Pará since 1988 as recorded by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research). The same estimate also reveals that biodiversity losses due to degradation in Pará state alone are larger than those resulting from deforestation in the whole Amazon in the last decade (2006-2015). The author Joice Ferreira stresses that "the research result can technically support the development of public policies aimed at forest conservation and restoration, as it supplies convincing evidence that Amazon conservation initiatives need to include reducing forest disturbances". To emphasize the importance of monitoring loss reduction strategies, the Inpe researcher Luiz Aragão recalls that Brazil managed to reduce deforestation by 80% as a result of the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (Plano de Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal - PPCDAm). "The next step is to quantify the extent and impact of forest degradation with a view to safeguard our biodiversity, carbon stocks and ecosystem services", anticipates Aragão. Effect of human activity The study showed that human intervention causes significant biodiversity losses that go beyond the most visible damages caused by felling trees. The researcher Joice Ferreira stresses another aspect of the importance of controlling forest degradation. "The conservation value falls if the forest suffers disturbances such as those we studied. Besides the direct effect of the disturbance in itself, biodiversity and quality are lost in the remaining forest affected by it. The adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices and the recovery of forests within the landscape reduce the incidence of wildfires, and thus comprises an important solution to this problem", she explains. On the same aspect, the researcher Toby Gardner, from the Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden), recommends caring for the remaining vegetation. "Tropical forests face risks if conservation initiatives focus exclusively on the extensions of remaining forest, without taking the health of such areas into account", he points out. The new study also demonstrates that species that are at the maximum risk of extiction are the most vulnerable to such disturbances caused by human activity. The researcher Ima Vieira, from the Emilio Goeldi Museum, informs that the Brazilian state of Pará hosts more than 10% of planet's bird species, many of which are endemic. "Our studies demonstrate that these species are precisely the ones that are suffering the largest impact from the anthropic action, as they do not survive in environments with such disturbance levels", she reveals. The Forest Code and forest health Silvio Ferraz, a researcher at the University of São Paulo (USP), recalls Brazil's importance in the world forest conservation scenario, since the country possesses 40% of the remaining tropical forests of the Earth. The Embrapa researcher Giampaolo Pellegrino, who chairs the corporation's Climate Change Portfolio, observes that the study sheds a positive light on the Forest Code. "There is an international recognition that the Brazilian Forest Code is an essential instrument to preserve areas of ecological importance for the country, as well as to regularize and significantly reduce deforestation, and the authors of the study themselves emphasize that. Reducing the allowed deforestation to 20% is very significant, to the extent that the loss of conservation value caused by internal disturbances and in the landscape of large remaining forest areas parallel the loss of areas that were deforested by clearcutting - a deforestation which certainly would be much more considerable without the Code", says Pellegrino. From his point of view, "the Code should not the single public policy on the topic, and hence lies a major contribution from the study, that is, warning about an effect that had not been clear or quantified and that requires attention both from the government and from society". For the researcher and main author of the study Jos Barlow, from Lancaster University (United Kingdom), "Brazil has shown unprecedented leadership in fighting deforestation in the last decade, and the same level of leadership is now required to protect the health of remaining primary forests in the tropics". The study published by Nature is one of the fruits of the Sustainable Amazon Network, a consortium of Brazilian and international institutions, coordinated by Embrapa Eastern Amazon, Emílio Goeldi Museum, Lancaster University and the Stockholm Environment Institute. The Network is also part of the association of Science and Technology Institutes on Biodiversity and Land Use in the Amazon (INCT Biodiversidade e Uso da Terra na Amazônia), funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq). Access the original article on Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature18326.html Translation: Mariana de Lima Medeiros