The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. The forest holds a vast amount of carbon in its billions of trees, accumulated over hundreds or even thousands of years. Every year, the leaves also absorb a huge quantity of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be left in the atmosphere adding to the rise in global temperatures. By one recent estimate, the trees of the Amazon rainforest pulled in carbon dioxide equivalent to the fossil fuel emissions of most of the nine countries that own or border the forest between 1980-2010. The forest is also the richest home to biodiversity on the planet, a habitat for perhaps one-tenth of all species of plants and animals.
And it is where one million indigenous people live, hunting and gathering amid the trees.
A senior Brazilian official, speaking anonymously, revealed his government was encouraging deforestation. The rate of losses has accelerated as Brazil's new right-wing president favours development over conservation.
About a hectare of Amazon rainforest, roughly the size of a football pitch, is now being cleared every single minute. The single biggest reason to fell trees, according to official figures, is to create new pastures for cattle, and during our visit we saw countless herds grazing on land that used to be rainforest. For decades, farming organisations have argued that the network of protected areas of forest, including reserves for indigenous people, is too restrictive for a developing country that needs to create jobs.
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