Transcript:
Millions of acres of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared for agriculture and illegal logging.
This deforestation destroys critical habitat and reduces the forest’s ability to absorb climate-warming carbon pollution.
So nonprofits and governments are collaborating on an initiative called ARPA Communities that is helping to protect more than 60 million acres of the Brazilian Amazon.
In addition to banning industrial logging and agriculture in these areas, the initiative empowers native people to steward the land by creating new economic opportunities for goods produced without harming the forest.
Deutsch: “So, critically, for example, ARPA will help to develop growing markets for açaí, Brazil nuts, honey, and sustainable rubber.”
James Deutsch is with Rainforest Trust, one of the initiative’s partners.
Deutsch: “The challenges of climate change, of Indigenous and traditional people’s rights to resources and to ways of life, and of the preservation of biodiversity globally are deeply, deeply linked to each other.”
And Deutsch says it’s important to address these intertwined issues together.
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media
