04 February, 2017
A logging truck carries eucalyptus trees cleared from a plantation beside virgin rainforest, near Porto de Moz, Brazilian Amazon. A new hybrid variety of eucalyptus that takes only seven years to grow from seed to harvest was introduced to Brazil in the mid-1990s.
After declining from major peaks in 1995 and 2004, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased sharply in 2016, under pressure from logging, mining, agriculture and hydropower developments. The Amazon forest is one of Earth’s great ‘carbon sinks’, absorbing billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and acting as a climate regulator. Without it, the world’s ability to lock up carbon would be reduced, compounding the effects of global warming.
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