Lancaster researchers guide climate change mitigation and support land rights

Lancaster research has played a key role in improving the socio-ecological sustainability of the Brazilian Amazon with three main areas of impact: defining policies that protect the most ecologically important secondary forests; guiding large-scale climate change mitigation strategies and expanding social justice.

Sustained research on the Brazilian Amazon, by Barlow and Fraser has contributed over 100 papers and over £4 million in funding to the academic community researching the Amazon. Barlow’s study of more than 1,600 plants, birds, and beetles in 59 naturally regenerating secondary forests showed that they display a high degree of biodiversity resilience. Lancaster research has played a key role in improving the socio-ecological sustainability of the Brazilian Amazon, with three main areas of impact.

• Barlow was invited to form part of a Scientific Advisory Committee which aimed to determine the legal status of secondary forests. The research helped them define ‘early’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘late’ stage forest regeneration. It provided the scientific basis for a new policy defining the legal protection of older and more ecologically valuable secondary forests (that have regrown following deforestation) across the 1.25M km2 State of Pará, the second largest in Brazil covering most of the eastern Amazon.
• This policy was the first to legally mandate the protection of secondary forests in the Brazilian Amazon, and was considered “essential” by the municipalities that licence or prohibit secondary forest clearance, supporting decisions on 400 km² of land in just one municipality. The law allows farmers to return low-value secondary forests to agricultural use whilst ensuring those with the highest carbon stocks and highest biodiversity values are protected.
• Barlow’s research on secondary forests was also used to develop the State of Pará’s plan to use reforestation as part of its aim to be carbon neutral by 2035. The research provided up-to-date and regionally appropriate estimates of carbon accumulation, which were up to 11 times lower than previously thought, that were considered “fundamental” for defining the area of reforestation required. The state is planning to reforest almost half of Brazil’s total target under its Nationally Determined Contributions from the Paris agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• Expanding social justice in two Amazonian regions. Fraser’s research contributed to more secure land tenure by providing the evidence upholding the territorial rights of the 13,350 Saterê-Mawé people in the Mamuru River valley and by using environmental protection to restore the ability to practice traditional livelihoods in the 4,413 km² Saracá-Taquera National Forest.