The Tumucumaque Mountains National Park (PNMT) is one of the lesser known of Brazil’s 74 national parks, which are established by the country’s national legislation on conservation units and managed by ICMBio. Located in the states of Amapá and Pará on Brazil’s northern border, it is the largest national park in Brazil and the largest tropical forest conservation area in the world. The uninhabited park is also less impacted by humans than any other on Earth, making it an attractive prospect for scientific research.
The park is home to Brazil’s largest trees. While the tallest trees in the central Amazon rarely exceed 60 meters tall, trees in the PNMT have been measured at 80 meters. Only discovered in 2016, these trees are a scientific enigma of great intrigue to many researchers. Until the turn of the millennium, trees of this height were not thought to exist in tropical regions. It was believed that for a tree of such size to be adequately hydrated and nourished, a milder climate is needed.
As part of a study led by scientists from the University of Exeter, UK, that seeks to understand physiological reactions to climate change in the Amazon rainforest, a team of researchers, technicians, local guides, and the PNMT manager spent a week in Amapá, establishing the foundations for a long-term monitoring program in the park. The region the team visited is rich in large tree species, including Dinizia excelsa, the lowest branches of which are 20 meters above the ground. At the end of October, Pesquisa FAPESP’s Biological Sciences editor Maria Guimarães and photographer Léo Ramos Chaves accompanied the expedition, traveling by plane, car, and boat, to produce this issue’s cover story (page 18).
In 2023, the amount of land deforested in the Amazon fell by almost 50% from the previous year; in the Cerrado, it increased by 43%, according to INPE data. In an interview, forest engineer Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of the MapBiomas project, explains the differences between the dynamics of the two biomes (page 54). Azevedo—who also helped create the Amazon Fund in 2008—was one of the founders of MapBiomas, started in 2015 to collect data that goes hand in hand with deforestation figures, such as transitions in land use. The fate of a deforested area, whether it becomes pasture, cropland, or is abandoned, is essential information for public policymaking.
Rarely mentioned in discussions about deforestation in Brazil is the Pampas biome, which is located in the country’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul and has lost 30% of its native vegetation since the mid-1980s. MapBiomas data show that grasslands, the essence of this biome, are more affected than forested areas, cleared to make way for agriculture (page 50). The infographic on page 52 provides an overview of this change in land use.
Ending on a lighter note, the article on page 82 describes the story of the women who pioneered design in Brazil. The perception of textile jobs as women’s work created space for associated activities such as costumes and set design, as well as carpets and furniture coverings for the incipient modernist decoration style.
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