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Halving carbon emissions from tropical deforestation by 2020 could help bring the international community closer to the agreed goal of <2 degree increase in global average temperature change and is consistent with a target set last year by the governments, corporations, indigenous peoples' organizations and non-governmental organizations that signed the New York Declaration on Forests ( NYDF). We assemble and refine a robust dataset to establish a 2001-2013 benchmark for average annual carbon emissions from gross tropical deforestation at 2.270 Gt CO2 yr−1. Brazil did not sign the NYDF, yet from 2001 to 2013, Brazil ranks first for both carbon emissions from gross tropical deforestation and reductions in those emissions - its share of the total declined from a peak of 69% in 2003 to a low of 20% in 2012. Indonesia, an NYDF signatory, is the second highest emitter, peaking in 2012 at 0.362 Gt CO2 yr−1 before declining to 0.205 Gt CO2 yr−1 in 2013. The other 14 NYDF tropical country signatories were responsible for a combined average of 0.317 Gt CO2 yr−1, while the other 86 tropical country non-signatories were responsible for a combined average of 0.688 Gt CO2 yr−1. We outline two scenarios for achieving the 50% emission reduction target by 2020, both emphasizing the critical role of Brazil and the need to reverse the trends of increasing carbon emissions from gross tropical deforestation in many other tropical countries that, from 2001 to 2013, have largely offset Brazil's reductions. Achieving the target will therefore be challenging, even though it is in the self-interest of the international community. Conserving rather than cutting down tropical forests requires shifting economic development away from a dependence on natural resource depletion toward recognition of the dependence of human societies on the natural capital that tropical forests represent and the goods and services they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we argue that a faster and more cost-effective way to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon would be the immediate allocation of ca. 70 million hectares of still undesignated public forestlands to conservation and social use. Currently, this massive block of forests is not under effective supervision by a designated public agency, increasing the risk of continued land grabbing and predatory use. These undesignated public lands accounted for 25% of recent deforestation, emitting 200 million tons of CO 2 . Under the current scenario of deforestation growth in the region, the immediate allocation of undesignated forestlands to conservation or social use by the government will reduce the availability of unsupervised public land, increase forest protection and, therefore, decrease deforestation and carbon emissions. Additionally, the action would send an unmistakable sign to the international community of Brazil's will to increase governance of its large share of the Amazon forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion of the cattle and soy industries in the Amazon basin has increased deforestation rates and will soon push all-weather highways into the region's core. In the face of this growing pressure, a comprehensive conservation strategy for the Amazon basin should protect its watersheds, the full range of species and ecosystem diversity, and the stability of regional climates. Here we report that protected areas in the Amazon basin—the central feature of prevailing conservation approaches—are an important but insufficient component of this strategy, based on policy-sensitive simulations of future deforestation. By 2050, current trends in agricultural expansion will eliminate a total of 40% of Amazon forests, including at least two-thirds of the forest cover of six major watersheds and 12 ecoregions, releasing 32 ± 8 Pg of carbon to the atmosphere. One-quarter of the 382 mammalian species examined will lose more than 40% of the forest within their Amazon ranges. Although an expanded and enforced network of protected areas could avoid as much as one-third of this projected forest loss, conservation on private lands is also essential. Expanding market pressures for sound land management and prevention of forest clearing on lands unsuitable for agriculture are critical ingredients of a strategy for comprehensive conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Undesignated public forests (50 Mha) in the Brazilian Amazon have no tenure status. • They are the target of land grabbing, speculation and exploitation of natural resources. • 2.6 million hectares (5%) had been deforested by 2018. • 11.6 million hectares (23 %) have been illegally registered as "private property". • Recent policy changes urge for immediate actions toward rainforest protection. The Brazilian Amazon has 49.8 million hectares (Mha) of public forestlands not allocated by the federal or state governments to a specific tenure status: the so called undesignated public forests (UPF). Historically, these public forests have been vulnerable to land grabbers and land speculation. Here, we highlighted the imminent threat in UPF by quantifying their accumulated deforestation, all of which is illegal, for the period 1997–2018 and the potential illegal occupation. Based on the available government database, we found that 2.6 Mha of UPF had already been deforested by 2018 resulting in an emission of 1.2 billion tons of CO 2 (Gt CO 2). The accumulated deforestation was 5.4 times higher in federal UPF than in state UPF. Moreover, a total of 11.6 Mha of UPF have already been illegally registered as "private property" in the Brazilian Environmental Rural Registry (CAR), 70 % of these areas located in state UPF. If legalized as private proprieties, the carbon emissions resulting from additional deforestation will be roughly between 1.2 and 3.0 Gt CO 2. The seriousness and precariousness of protection of Brazilian Amazon UPF, the rapid conversion of forests outside these areas and increased flexibility in land policies - calls for the immediate designation of these areas to some form of conservation, as to avoid irreparable damage to the world's largest rainforest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]