Deforestation may cause billion-dollar losses to Brazil’s economic activity

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A study by Federal University of Minas Gerais researchers has provided an estimate of the potential economic impacts of the ongoing deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

The research, published in Nature Communications scientific journal, points out that the increase in pasture areas – and, consequently, the decrease in Amazon vegetation – may influence the rainfall cycle in the region.

With reduced rainfall, planting and cattle raising are compromised, and economic losses could reach R$5.7 (US$1.07) billion per year by 2050, according to the study.

“In practice, what is happening in the Amazon today is ‘agrosuicide’, but producers insist on not seeing it,” says one of the researchers involved in the study, environmental engineer Argemiro Teixeira Filho.

According to the Imazon Institute (Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon), the region lost an area of 778 km² of forest over the past month, which represented the worst rate for April in 10 years.

Source: CNN Brasil

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