Brazil’s Amazonian protected areas as a bulwark against regional climate change

Abstract

Brazil’s Amazonian protected areas play an important role in maintaining the environmental services of the region, including Amazonia’s role in regional and global climate. These protected areas face threats both from deforestation and from degradation of standing forest. Preserving carbon stocks in protected areas is important both because of the climatic benefit of avoiding greenhouse gas emissions and because of the potential to provide a monetary value that contributes to supporting local human populations in ways that maintain rather than destroy the forest. REDD+ represents one potential mechanism for maintaining these areas. A variety of legal threats to protected areas in Brazilian Amazonia has arisen, leading to concern over the future of these areas and their role as a bulwark against regional climate change. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.