Brazil and the Amazon Forest - Greenpeace USA (2024)

FAQs

How does Greenpeace help the rainforest? ›

For decades Greenpeace scientists, campaigners and activists have exposed forest crimes, launched groundbreaking research, and fought alongside communities to show the scale of forest destruction and lobby politicians to finally put the natural world first.

Greenpeace has been working with our Indigenous allies to guarantee the demarcation of their lands and exposing the atrocious violence against forest defenders by loggers and land grabbers. We have also been campaigning for zero deforestation and putting pressure on the government to increase forest protection.

Silva said the government would send more than 300 firefighters and two aircraft to help put out the fires. Those who deliberately set fire to private areas will have their properties embargoed and no longer be able to obtain funding, according to the head of environment agency IBAMA, Rodrigo Agostinho.

Many in Brazil's agriculture industry say ranching and farming, which have contributed to wide-scale deforestation in the Amazon, have helped reduce hunger in the country. Millions of people rely on cleared land for their livelihoods, yet others depend on the rain forest's preservation for their economic well-being.

This vast untamed wilderness is under increasing threat from huge-scale farming and ranching, infrastructure and urban development, unsustainable logging, mining and climate change.

Greenpeace investigates, documents and exposes the causes of environmental destruction. We work to bring about change by lobbying, consumer pressure and mobilising members of the general public. And we take peaceful direct action to protect our Earth and promote solutions for a green and peaceful future.

Brazil's Forest Code

In 1965, Brazil created and passed its first Forest Code, a law requiring landowners in the Amazon to maintain 35 to 80 percent of their property under native vegetation.

By beefing up regulatory enforcement and cracking down on illegal development, the Lula administration has overseen a 55 percent decrease in Amazon deforestation in its first year.

The study found that approximately 43% of fires detected in the Brazilian Amazon since August 2019 are related to deforestation. The rest include forest wildfires, created accidentally by people from uncontrolled small fires linked to crop burning, livestock management or clear-cutting.

The largest driver of deforestation in the Amazon is animal agriculture. Roughly 80 percent of the deforested land has been converted into pasture land for cattle. The country driving the trend is the United States, which in 2021 bought more than 320 million pounds of Brazilian beef.

Why can't we lose the Amazon rainforest? ›

In terms of the global carbon cycle, tropical forests have a carbon sink roughly equal to half of what is in the atmosphere. About half of that is in the Amazon. This means to lose the Amazon would dramatically increase climate change.

Destroying the Amazon rainforest would mean losing a biodiversity hotspot. Its absence would lead to increased carbon in the air and oceans, the loss of medically and culturally significant species, and worsening drought and flooding.

Our committed activists and supporters have come together to ban commercial whaling, stop nuclear testing, protect the Arctic, pass the Global Oceans Treaty — the strongest climate treaty in history — and so much more.

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and develop solutions for a green and peaceful future. Our goal is to ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity.

We can, as citizens, consumers and countries, choose clean energy, forest protection and ecological farming to cut climate pollution. Together we can heal the climate and in the process of working together build a safer, greener fairer world.

Greenpeace works all over the globe to help protect endangered species, including a few of the beautiful creatures below. For more information on any of these animals, you can check out the endangered species page we've created and will be adding to over time.