Shelling Brazil nuts in Peru. An emerging question: can Amazon activities such as Brazil nut production be scaled up sustainably? (Photo by Barbara Fraser)
A new scientific report about the Amazon Basin—arguably the most comprehensive ever done—reviews the region’s natural history, sizes up the impacts caused by human habitation and provides guideposts for a hoped-for shift to sustainable development. The 1,300-page report, presented Nov. 12 at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, draws on input from some 200 people, including scientists and members of indigenous and other Amazonian communities. It aims to spur Amazonian governments and communities to redouble efforts toward sustainable use of the region’s resources, says Andrea Encalada, vice rector of San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador, who co-chaired the project with Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre. “Changes [in the Amazon basin] have happened much more rapidly than we thought they would, so we believe this is a time for reflection, and we want governments to make much stronger commitments,” she says. (See Q&A—this... [Log in to read more]
