Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Amazon in the Eco-Spotlight

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 12 2004 (IPS) - The world's knowledge of the Amazon and its role in the global climate will expand Jul. 27-29 as a result of the 3rd conference of the Large-scale Biosphere Atmosphere (LBA) Experiment in the Amazon, the biggest international cooperation program for environmental studies. More than 700 studies signed by 800 scientists from 170 institutions from Brazil, other Amazon countries, United States and Europe will be presented at the meeting in Brasilia.

The LBA, begun in 1998 through a Brazilian initiative, brings the scientists together every two years and is slated to conclude its work in 2006.

The studies already published show that the Amazon forests serve as ''carbon sinks'', fixing carbon from the atmosphere, and that deforestation has reduced rainfall and altered the climate in the region and in other places around the world.

The Amazon is a mosaic of non-uniform forests, where trees grow and die three times faster in the western region than in the east.