Search

This article seeks to discuss the associations elaborated by riverine interlocutors between infrastructures and the landscape in which they occur, within the context of climate change in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Here, we debate the relational character of infrastructures, and how they act as important markers of river seasonality, landscape, people's existence, and practices from the perspective of the accessed riverine people. This paper's discussion is supported by qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and field notes from two riverine communities in the Amazonas state: Tumbira and Lago do Catalão. Inspired by authors who dialogue with Social Studies of Science and Technology and discuss infrastructures, their effects, their relational and ontological character, we seek to identify entanglements of landscape and infrastructure, and their implications in the practices and ways of living of riverine Amazonian people. Elements such as gas pipelines, power transmission lines, hydroelectric plants, cargo ships, and highways emerge, affect, and are affected in these entangled landscapes in the eyes of the riverine people. They merge with other entanglements such as the rivers and creeks that perform the riverine landscape and life. Thus, they induce reflections on such relationships and the affectations permeated by fears, wishes, and (dis)trust of their operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The scarce knowledge about the drivers of demand for respiratory health care in the Brazilian Amazon, where the gap of human and physical health care resources is wide, is expanded with two surveys conducted in the west of the region, in Acre state. Potential drivers, informed by a review of twelve recent papers, were classified into seven categories capturing the individual, household, community and macroeconomic dimensions.Methods: Quantitative field surveys were conducted in 2017 and 2019 based on coupled conglomerate-quota randomization sampling. Adults responded about their own health or their children's health. The probability of seeking physician care for the latest episode of respiratory illness or dry cough was analysed with multiple nonlinear regressions, having as covariates the potential predictors informed by the literature.Results: The propensity to seek health care and to purchase medication was larger for children. Influenza-like illness (Despite the exact diagnostic stated by respondents being "influenza", a virus detection test (such as the PCR test) is not commonly applied, as informed by the Acre state public health service. In consistency, the term "influenza-like illness" is used.) was the most frequently diagnosed disease, followed by pneumonia, suggesting that a health care-seeking rate below 40% may perpetuate health impairment and local contagion. Illnesses' severity, including the pain experienced, was the main predictor, revealing that subjective perception was more influential than objective individual and household characteristics.Conclusions: The results suggest that subjective underestimation of respiratory illnesses' consequences for oneself and for local society could prevent health care from being sought. This is in line with some previous studies but departs from those emphasizing the role of objective factors. Social consequences, of, for instance, a macroeconomic nature, need to be highlighted based on studies detecting long-run relationships among health care demand, health and economic performance at the national level. Depending on the intensity of the trade-off between the costs imposed on the health system by increased demand and on the economy by the reduced productivity of the ill, policy could be adopted to change subjective perceptions of illnesses with nudges and educational and informational interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental arrangements generally coexist with State-based and private rules, creating a property rights system that legitimizes certain behaviors. In a world of positive transaction costs, legitimacy ensues from imperfect monitoring activities, opening room for opportunism. In this paper, we discuss how the existence of multiple rules in a scenario of high monitoring costs affects the performance of an environmental policy. We discuss the case of deferred prosecution agreements (TAC, acronym in Portuguese), which are voluntary arrangements designed with the goal of incentivizing slaughterhouses to monitor the environmental practices of ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon. More specifically, we study how the signature of a TAC agreement affects deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazônia Legal region at the municipality level. This paper adopts a difference-in-differences approach to analyze a sample of Brazilian municipalities between 2006 and 2017. Our results, which remain robust across alternative estimators and subsamples, show that the signature of a TAC agreement increases deforestation rates by 0.2 standard deviations. We argue that the signature of a TAC agreement, by creating an imperfect proxy for "good behavior" that enables both compliant and non-compliant organizations to access credit, may incentivize deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast climate change that is felt on the planet, evidenced by the unsustainable scenario of waste generated by the current sources and loss of biodiversity, shows the necessity of changes in the energetic and material sources. Within the scope of these discussions, the Amazon is always seen as a crucial point. In this scenario, this paper proposes a green accord for the Brazilian Amazon. Therefore, it is analyzed the preservation of the Amazon, the contextualization of the necessity of changes on the economy and the Modern Monetary Theory as supportive of this governance of economic transition, placed per suggestions and proposals in that green accord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities that were founded based on land occupation in the Amazon usually have a wide knowledge about the use of medicinal plants. Studies carried out in this context reveal a vast heterogeneity in terms of knowledge and use of medicinal plants. They also describe the influence these communities have on plant diversity and the cultural aspects associated with their use. This paper shows the dynamics of knowledge and use of medicinal plants in the Paulo Fonteles Rural Settlement, established in 2006 in the Mosqueiro District, Belém Municipality, Pará state, Brazilian Amazon. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Medicinal plants are crucial resources for farmers before and after land occupation. A total of 140 ethnospecies were recorded, of which 119 were identified; They belong to 58 botanical families. 60 species are native to Brazil. Out of those, 21 belong to the phytogeographic domain restricted to Amazonia. 59 species were introduced the region. The local knowledge of medicinal plants is well spread among informants of different age and sex groups. People from other regions in Brazil reported significantly more medicinal plants than those native to the state of Pará. Among the 140 plants mentioned, 110 refer to species whose uses have been maintained over time by informants. The socio-cultural heterogeneity and the dynamic livelihood of the farmers has been crucial for the improvement of their knowledge and the increase of the diversity of the local flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several indigenous peoples have sought ways where the implementation of ethno-development is often mirrored in short-term, merely economic, regional processes in which ethnotechnology and the use of natural resources are disconnected from concerns about environmental impacts generated. Paiter Suruí people is one of those many indigenous peoples in Brazil who have bet on the technological force for the maintenance of their cultural and territorial preservation. This work aims to show the ordinary reality lived by the Paiter Surui by struggling in search of conquests and guarantees to their traditional territories and culture. For this the knowledge and qualification on using technological tools by the Surui Paiter were and still are important transcultural-territorial means and strategies for the cultural-identity strengthening and for confrontation to the postcolonial discourses. This paper was based on the methodological approach of participant research, once the first author is an indigenous of this ethnic group, while the second author has long experience with the native peoples of Rondônia and develops several activities in Indigenous Reserve Sete de Setembro, territory of the Paiter Suruí [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the contribution of the localities, or communities, to the configuration of the urban network in the Brazilian Amazon. The theoretical framework is based on the extended urbanization concept, comprising spatial units with different territorial occupation typology. It is presented a study of the communities located in the southwestern part of the state of Pará as nodes of an urban network on a local scale. Besides the characterization and hierarchy, it was also verified if the nodes classification varies according to the spatial context: communities inside or outside a conservation unit (UC); or located along rivers (riverside) or roads (roadside). From 2009 to 2015, annual field trips allowed the characterization of 236 communities regarding the population origin and organization, the presence of urban infrastructure and equipment, the access to health and education services, and the land use forms, that were summarized in 28 variables. The multivariate statistical evaluation (Hotelling's T² test) indicated that communities inside an UC presented variables mean values significantly different from those outside. This emphasizes the importance of land use regulation for general community conditions. The fuzzy inference for statistical groupings analysis indicated five clusters, ranked according to the communities' conditions from best (Fuzzy 1) to worse (Fuzzy 5) conditions, identified by the variables. These clusters were described and evaluated considering their temporal evolution, geographical distribution and the variables importance, and were also compared to previous studies. The higher frequency of roadside communities in cluster Fuzzy 1, in opposition to the higher frequency of riverside communities in Fuzzy 5 and Fuzzy 2 (of intermediate conditions) indicated that roadside communities were better structured than riverside ones. These results portray the communities as elements of common and particular aspects, in a hierarchical typology of their attributes, providing useful information for the definition of regional conservation and sustainability policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines theoretical issues surrounding how conservation efforts are reproduced within contemporary capitalism drawing on two cases: Brazil's eastern Amazon and the forested regions of southern Chile. Drawing on a critical approach to analyze the data from the respective cases, we analyze the ways in which conservation efforts have been territorialized and loaded with symbolism and diversity, which express different ideological geographies. We argue that in the contemporary crisis of capitalism (which has been misunderstood by many observers as an environmental crisis), an array of new commodities have emerged. These processes of commodification have been marked by the commodification of "environmental services"and the creation of more private nature reserves creating value in new ways marked by scarcity and unique natural attractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines theoretical issues surrounding how conservation efforts are reproduced within contemporary capitalism drawing on two cases: Brazil's eastern Amazon and the forested regions of southern Chile. Drawing on a critical approach to analyze the data from the respective cases, we analyze the ways in which conservation efforts have been territorialized and loaded with symbolism and diversity, which express different ideological geographies. We argue that in the contemporary crisis of capitalism (which has been misunderstood by many observers as an environmental crisis), an array of new commodities have emerged. These processes of commodification have been marked by the commodification of "environmental services" and the creation of more private nature reserves creating value in new ways marked by scarcity and unique natural attractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High spatial resolution images as well as image processing and object detection algorithms are recent technologies that aid the study of biodiversity and commercial plantations of forest species. This paper seeks to contribute knowledge regarding the use of these technologies by studying randomly dispersed native palm tree. Here, we analyze the automatic detection of large circular crown (LCC) palm tree using a high spatial resolution panchromatic GeoEye image (0.50 m) taken on the area of a community of small agricultural farms in the Brazilian Amazon. We also propose auxiliary methods to estimate the density of the LCC palm tree Attalea speciosa (babassu) based on the detection results. We used the “Compt-palm” algorithm based on the detection of palm tree shadows in open areas via mathematical morphology techniques and the spatial information was validated using field methods (i.e. structural census and georeferencing). The algorithm recognized individuals in life stages 5 and 6, and the extraction percentage, branching factor and quality percentage factors were used to evaluate its performance. A principal components analysis showed that the structure of the studied species differs from other species. Approximately 96% of the babassu individuals in stage 6 were detected. These individuals had significantly smaller stipes than the undetected ones. In turn, 60% of the stage 5 babassu individuals were detected, showing significantly a different total height and a different number of leaves from the undetected ones. Our calculations regarding resource availability indicate that 6870 ha contained 25,015 adult babassu palm tree, with an annual potential productivity of 27.4 t of almond oil. The detection of LCC palm tree and the implementation of auxiliary field methods to estimate babassu density is an important first step to monitor this industry resource that is extremely important to the Brazilian economy and thousands of families over a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian Amazon, even though internationally known for the exuberance of its natural ecosystem and its traditional communities, has been undergoing intense urbanization process, which is leading to significant population growth of intermediate cities of regional urban network, among other consequences. This study aims to investigate whether this urbanization, like other cities in Brazil, is promoting urban sprawl or not in an important sub-regional center in the Amazon region, Altamira, seeking to identify factors that contribute to the occurrence of the phenomenon. It also aims to determine whether, in this process, there is some significant change in the configuration of intra-urban structure of the city. The review of literature found that the research on urban sprawl is already significant in large cities, but it is still scarce in intermediate cities in the urban network, hence the importance of the contribution of this work to the literature on the subject. The empirical analysis was based upon the construction of a geographic information system (GIS), which integrated spatial information with statistical data from demographic censuses of 2000 and 2010, as well as field research. The paper concludes that there was intense process of urban sprawl in Altamira between 2000 and 2010 without significant changes in the configuration of intra-urban structure, and that the emphasis on horizontal real estate projects aimed at high-income families as the main cause of urban sprawl, needs to be reviewed in the case of intermediate cities. It is also necessary to give importance to other factors such as: the implementation of human settlements in the outskirts for classes of low and medium-low incomes; the new forms of urban mobility that are being used by families residing in these locations; and the effects of reducing the average number of people per household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As progress is made in understanding the dynamics of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC), arguments that view population pressure as one of the major factors affecting forest destruction continue to be framed. Following the advances in the field of population-environment studies, this paper contends that a full account of the complex web of drivers involved in tropical deforestation needs to go beyond demographics per se. This paper examines the contribution of the 'population factor' as a cause of deforestation in Machadinho D'Oeste, Rondônia, Brazilian Amazonia, an area with significant small-scale farming. Conceptually, the paper shows that socioeconomic status and mediating factors (i.e., education, managerial skills, previous rural experience, integration into the local, and regional contexts), and attitudes and behaviors toward the land parcel development mediate migrants' relationships with the local environment. The analysis combines multiple data sources (i.e., demographic census, household survey, land-cover maps, in-depth interviews) and analytical approaches (i.e., fuzzy sets statistics, remote-sensing/GIS analysis, interpretivist qualitative assessment) to examine the complex interrelationships between LUCC and human population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Amazon rainforest is one of the world''s greatest natural wonders and holds great importance and significance for the world''s environmental balance. Around 60% of the Amazon rainforest is located in the Brazilian territory. The two biggest states of the Amazon region are Amazonas (the upper Amazon) and Pará (the lower Amazon), which together account for around 73% of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, and are the only states that are serviced by international airports in Brazil''s north region. The purpose of this paper is to model and forecast sustainable international tourism demand for the states of Amazonas, Pará, and the aggregate of the two states. By sustainable tourism is meant a distinctive type of tourism that has relatively low environmental and cultural impacts. Economic progress brought about by illegal wood extraction and commercial agriculture has destroyed large areas of the Amazon rainforest. The sustainable tourism industry has the potential to contribute to the economic development of the Amazon region without destroying the rainforest. The paper presents unit root tests for monthly and annual data, estimates alternative time series models and conditional volatility models of the shocks to international tourist arrivals, and provides forecasts for 2006 and 2007. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Malaria prevalence has been one of the most dramatic outcomes of the occupation of the Brazilian Amazon as exemplified by Northern Mato Grosso, one of the areas of highest malaria prevalence in the Americas in the early 1990s. This paper associates the dynamicsof high malaria prevalence in Northern Mato Grosso with three land uses—small-scalegold mining ( garimpos), agricultural colonization/cattle ranching (rural), and urban activities—and their related population characteristics, which constitute riskprofiles. Furthermore, spatial proximity and population mobility between (a) garimpos and new rural settlements and (b) older rural settlements or urban areas are key factors explaining malaria diffusion throughout the region. The paper identifies and characterizes populations at high malaria risk and the effects of land use types on malaria diffusion, providing policymakers with information for regional and local policies to control malaria and minimize its effects on Amazonian populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is showed a checklist of the species of Bromeliaceae of the Volta Grande do Xingu (Pará, Brazil), where is provided a identification key for the region species, and your respective status of conservation when available. The material used in this study was obtained through the activities of the Project Rescue and Scientific Utilization of the Flora of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, executed by Norte Energia S.A and in the collection of herbarium MG. In the study area, Bromeliaceae is represented by 20 species and seven genera. Tillandsia and Aechmea were the most representative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration patterns within tropical forest frontiers are highly complex and multidirectional, with movements to, from, and within these regions likely driven by different macro and micro factors. As such, several different conceptual models have been suggested to explain these dynamics. This paper uses data from a panel survey of households in a frontier region of the western Brazilian Amazon along with 'second hand' reports on where people have moved to evaluate these conceptual models. Our rich data set, collected over nearly a decade from hundreds of households, allows us to compare households who arrived at different ages to assess predictions of the life cycle hypothesis; those who have been in the state (or on their properties) for different numbers of years to investigate the turnover hypothesis; those who arrived with different levels of capital to examine path dependence as suggested by conceptual models that focus on wealth dynamics; and the destination and purpose for moves from and within the study region to look for evidence of the frontier expansion hypothesis. We do not find any evidence for the turnover hypothesis, perhaps due to the favorable biophysical and market conditions in our study region. However, patterns in this region are consistent with all of the other conceptual models, reflecting the overlapping theoretical foundations of the models, and the complexity of migration and mobility on the frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the dynamics of land-use in the Brazilian Amazon using a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model. A fixed effect panel data specification is used to control for the heterogeneity in the data. Meanwhile, spatial autocorrelation is also diagnosed by a statistical methodology that allows us to split the model in subsamples (clusters) of more homogenous municipalities. The clustering analysis shows that there are three clusters whose land-use patterns are strongly different in an economical point of view. The first cluster identifies municipalities dedicated to logging, natural resources exploitation and slash-and-burn cultures; the second cluster shows a more diversified agriculture; while the third cluster presents very developed intensive agriculture municipalities. Another contribution of this article relies on the assessment of contemporaneous causal relation among distinct land-uses areas. This new approach allows us to evaluate the dynamics relations arisen from unexpected innovations in the process of soil occupation. The impulse response functions (IRF) and the forecast error variance decompositions (FEVD) generate the following results: (1) in the opposition direction of previous studies, we find that the demand for cropping does not require to clear new areas of forest.; (2) contrary to previous studies we do not find indication that cattle ranching is the primary driver of deforestation; (3) the impact of a shock of pasture land on itself is virtually null at the initial stages, but increases over time, not requiring to clear extra areas of forest land but rather competing with crop land; (4) it seems that if not for all the Amazon Basin, at least in one cluster, cattle ranching and cropping could be competitive activities; and (5) we find out that in the long run pasture innovation is responsible for the major percent of the forecast error concern all land uses. It probably means that the destiny of distinct categories of land, in cluster one, is endogenously determine by activities connected to cattle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses the implications of poor or non-existent information on soil quality, at the proper scale, during the planning and implementation of settlement projects in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on data from the Machadinho settlement project, Rondônia, we show that most settlers had no knowledge about the agricultural capability of the area, did not receive technical information, could not afford agricultural inputs, planted inadequate crops in the early years of occupation, and did not manage to stay in their plot for a long period of time. Satellite images indicated that patches of land with good soil quality were not necessarily the first to be utilized. Inadequately planned settlements face many challenges (poor soil being one of them) and are likely to result in land turnover, conversion of land into pasture, land concentration among wealthier persons, invasion of areas by poorer people, and deforestation, defying the main purpose of agrarian reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses poverty and inequality dynamics among smallholders along the Transamazon Highway. We measure changes in poverty and inequality for original settlers and new owners, contrasting income-based with multidimensional indices of well-being. Our results show an overall reduction in both poverty and inequality among smallholders, although poverty decline was more pronounced among new owners, while inequality reduction was larger among original settlers. This trend suggests that families have an initial improvement in livelihood and well-being which tends to reach a limit later-a sign of structural limitations common to rural areas and maybe a replication of boom and bust trends in local economies among Amazonian municipalities. In addition, our multidimensional estimates of well-being reveal that some economically viable land use strategies of smallholders (e.g., pasture) may have important ecological implications for the regional landscape. These findings highlight the public policy challenges for fostering sustainable development among rural populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governmental and non-governmental development organisations (NGOs) invest considerable efforts to support forest dependent people for the extraction and commercialization of non-timber forest products (NTFP) to generate income in an ecologically sustainable way. But success so far has been quite modest. Many of the families abandon these initiatives once the external support ceases. This paper critically reflects on the expectations and concerns regarding this kind of development projects by in-depth analysing a project for the commercialization of vegetal oils by the traditional community of Pedreira, situated in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon, which received intensive government-lead support. The study explores the motivations of the participating families, how the project influenced production schemes, and what have been the specific benefits for participating families and the overall consequences for the entire community. Findings indicate that the analyzed NTFP project, on the basis of overoptimistic expectations, strongly invested in the re-organisation of local production schemes without adequately considering the socio-environmental reality, capacities and interests of the community. As a consequence, the proposed social-productive model was not necessarily meaningful to all local people and even had detrimental effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies in the Amazon have explored the evolution of urban form and composition in the region's emerging urban hierarchy. This paper presents a methodology to characterize the physical properties of urban land cover in Rondônia across multiple dates using remote sensing imagery. Three descriptive metrics arc explored: (a) urban extent in terms of the area and density of impervious surfaces, (b) the relationship between urban area and urban population, anti (c) trajectories of urban land-cover composition. Such datasets can contribute to longitudinal studies of urban areas and provide a first step in linking urbanization in regional land-cover change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Legal Brazilian Amazon, while the largest rainforest in the world, is also a region where most residents are urban. Despite close linkages between rural and urban processes in the region, rural areas have been the predominant focus of Amazon-based population-environment scholarship. Offering a focus on urban areas within the Brazilian Amazon, this paper examines the emergence of urban hierarchies within the region. Using a combination of nationally representative data and community based surveys, applied to a multivariate cluster methodology (Grade of Membership), we observe the emergence of sub-regional urban networks characterized by economic and political inter-dependency, population movement, and provision of services. These networks link rural areas, small towns, and medium and large cities. We also identify the emergence of medium-size cities as important nodes at a sub-regional level. In all, the work provides insight on the proposed model of ‘disarticulated urbanization’ within the Amazon by calling attention to the increasing role of regional and sub-regional urban networks in shaping the future expansion of land use and population distribution in the Amazon. We conclude with a discussion of implications for increasing intra-regional connectivity and fragmentation of conservation areas and ecosystems in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping aboveground forest biomass is of fundamental importance for estimating CO2 emissions due to land use and land cover changes in the Brazilian Amazon. However, existing biomass maps for this region diverge in terms of the total biomass estimates derived, as well as in the spatial patterns of mapped biomass. In addition, no regional or location-specific measure of reliability accompanies most of these maps. In this study, 330 one-hectare plots from the RADAMBRASIL survey, acquired over and along areas adjacent to the state of Rondônia, were used to generate a biomass map over the entire region using geostatistics. The RADAMBRASIL samples were used to generate a biomass map, along with a measure of reliability for each biomass estimate at each location, using kriging with external drift with elevation, vegetation type and soil texture considered as biomass predictor variables. Cross-validation was performed using the sample plots to compare the performance of kriging against a simple biomass estimation using the sample mean. Overall, biomass varied from 225 to 486Mgha−1, with a local standard deviation ranging from 62 to 202Mgha−1. Large uncertainty values were obtained for regions with low sampling density, in particular in savanna areas. The geostatistical method adopted in this paper has the potential to be applied over the entire Brazilian Amazon region to provide more accurate local estimates of biomass, which would aid carbon flux estimation, along with measures of their reliability, and to identify areas where more sampling efforts should be concentrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The impact of fire use and hazard in frontier settlement is a critical environmental concern that has been historically overshadowed by deforestation issues- and thus underexamined at local and regional scales by social scientists. Consequently, conceptual frameworks of LUCC change consider fire use as an outcome of land use decisions and neglect the capacity of burning choices to influence these decisions and subsequent land cover change. This paper examines the relationship of settlement, land use, and fire use. It considers recent LUCC frameworks, and then uses household surveys on fire use practices to discuss how the study of fire use can contribute to understanding frontier landscape change. Planting decisions, settlement history, location desires, and burning logistics work in combination to influence burning choices and thus LUCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global-scale forest/non-forest (FNF) maps are of crucial importance for applications like biomass estimation and deforestation monitoring. Global FNF maps based on optical remote sensing data have been produced by the wall-to-wall satellite image analyses or sampling strategies. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also made available their global FNF maps based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. This paper attempted to answer the following scientific question: how comparable are the FNF products derived from optical and SAR data? As test sites we selected the Amazon (tropical rainforest) and Cerrado (tropical savanna) biomes, the two largest Brazilian biomes. Forest estimations from 2015 derived from TanDEM-X (X band; HH polarization) and ALOS-2 (L band; HV polarization) SAR data, as well as forest cover information derived from Landsat 8 optical data were compared with each other at the municipality and image sampling levels. The optical-based forest estimations considered in this study were derived from the MapBiomas project, a Brazilian multi-institutional project to map land use and land cover (LULC) classes of an entire country based on historical time series of Landsat data. In addition to the existing forest maps, a set of 1619 Landsat 8 RGB color composites was used to generate new independent comparison data composed of circular areas with 5-km diameter, which were visually interpreted after image segmentation. The Spearman rank correlation estimated the correlation among the data sets and the paired Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon tested the hypothesis that the data sets are statistically equal. Results showed that forest maps derived from SAR and optical satellites are statistically different regardless of biome or scale of study (municipality or image sampling), except for the Cerrado´s forest estimations derived from TanDEM-X and ALOS-2. Nevertheless, the percentage of pixels classified as forest or non-forest by both SAR sensors were 90% and 80% for the Amazon and Cerrado biome, respectively, indicating an overall good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper 'Are Brazil deforesters avoiding detection?' recently published in Conservation Letters by Richards et al. 2016 has critical shortcomings and conclusions based on biased and not very robust analyses. Here, we provide clarifications to some of the most critical points regarding the monitoring of land use changes in the Brazilian Amazon and related greenhouse emissions. Such clarifications are relevant to the readers of Conservation Letters and to a broader audience that rely on sound and robust science for a better management of environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]