INPE Estimates Emissions by Deforestation of Amazon

Hello reader!

It follows a note published on the day (08/10) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) informing that the institute estimates emissions by Deforestation of Amazon Rain Forest.

Duda Falcão

INPE Estimates Emissions by Deforestation

of Amazon Rain Forest

Friday, August 10, 2012

Reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Forest since 2004, decreased about 57% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This means that deforestation in the region represents about 1.5% of all anthropogenic carbon released globally into the atmosphere. The outcomes are provided by INPE-EM, a new service launched this Friday (10) by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE) in São José dos Campos.

Developed by researchers at the Earth System Science Center (Centro de Ciência do Sistema Terrestre - CCST) in partnership with the Department of Earth Observation (Coordenação de Observação da Terra - OBT) and the Amazonian Regional Center (Centro Regional da Amazônia - CRA), as well as national and international collaborating institutions, this new model generates outputs using PRODES data, a system based on INPE satellite monitoring that calculates how much Amazon primary forest is lost every year.

"In this first version of INPE-EM, the system provides annual estimates for all the Brazilian Amazon and by states of this region up to 2011. Indicators for monitoring emissions reductions after 2006 are also presented, based on the 1996-2005 average deforestation,” said the researcher Ana Paula Aguiar.

The new service provides essential information to quantify the impacts of forest loss for the global balance of gases in the atmosphere, as well as to monitor the effects of actions to reduce emissions.

Almost half of forest biomass is composed of carbon, which is released as CO2 by burning, deforestation and other land use transitions. The speed of CO2 transfer into the atmosphere is related to the causes of deforestation - logging, pastures for cattle ranching, large-scale mechanized agriculture, family farming, etc.

All results of the estimate of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions by changes in land coverage are available on the internet: www.inpe.br > Produtos e Serviços > Amazônia > INPE-EM.

INPE-EM uses the model described in recent paper of Aguiar et al. (2012)

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)