Deforestation of the Amazon region is responsible for almost half of carbon emissions in Brazil. Agriculture, road works and settlements are increasingly threatening the rain forests. To halt this sad development, activists want large parts of the region to be declared nature sanctuaries.
By 2016, a comprehensive conservation network is supposed to protect some 60 million hectares of Amazonian rain forest. The plans have been made in close consultation with the local population. Conservation is only possible if the people who live in and from the rain forest are allowed to use it in sustainable fashion. The rain forest is, after all, one of the world's most important carbon accumulators.
