- A new report has found that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon store more aboveground carbon than the rest of the rainforest.
- Protected areas and Indigenous territories were also found to serve as significant carbon sinks between 2013 and 2022, absorbing 257 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- Protected areas in Colombia, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana were found to be significant carbon sinks.
- The report underscores the need to protect these areas that aren’t currently threatened by deforestation as they play a critical role in offsetting emissions from other parts of the forest.
A new report adds to the already overwhelming case that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest serve as a critical carbon sink.
The report, based on satellite data gathered by Earth imaging company Planet and analyzed by the nonprofit organization Amazon Conservation, reinforces the critical role of protected areas and Indigenous territories in climate action.
Although protected areas and Indigenous territories cover only half of the biome, the data found that, as of 2022, they stored approximately 60% of the Amazon’s aboveground carbon, totaling 34.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. In the decade starting 2013 — a period marked by rampant deforestation, wildfires and droughts — these stewarded areas also served as a significant carbon sink, absorbing 257 million metric tons of CO2. By contrast, the rest of the Amazon emitted a net 255 million metric tons of CO2 in the same 10-year period.
“Protected areas and Indigenous territories almost represent an offset of the increasing emissions outside,” Matt Finer, lead author of the report and director of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay in a video interview.
Finer has been studying deforestation and carbon stocks in the Amazon for years. Previously, he used data from NASA’s GEDI mission, which uses laser beams emitted from the International Space Station to map forests in 3D. However, this lidar data had gaps and didn’t provide data that spanned across the Amazon Rainforest. Since 2024, Finer has used satellite data from Planet’s Forest Carbon Diligence data set, which provides comprehensive coverage of aboveground carbon density at a resolution of 30 meters (100 feet). This higher-resolution imagery meant that Finer and his team could zoom into specific locations, enabling them to obtain more precise data on protected areas and Indigenous territories.
“The data shows that land stewardship and protection fundamentally shift the carbon storage and emissions dynamics in the Amazon,” Chris Anderson, senior scientist at Planet, told Mongabay in an email interview. Anderson said the data hint at two scenarios that lie ahead for the planet: “one under land stewardship that promotes climate resilience versus one that doesn’t.”
The team that analyzed the data also determined how aboveground carbon levels changed in 6,000 protected areas and Indigenous territories across the Amazon from 2013 to 2022. They found that, as of 2022, protected areas and Indigenous territories in the northern and western parts of the Amazon had the highest levels of aboveground carbon. “Let’s say someone’s interested in an initiative that wants to save the area with the most carbon right now,” Finer said. “This data will guide them and show them that in the northwest Amazon, you get that best combination of carbon plus size.”
Not all protected areas, however, served as carbon sinks.
The team found that protected areas and Indigenous territories strewn across the northern and central Amazon served as net carbon sources over the 10-year period they focused on. In many instances, Finer said, this could potentially be attributed to natural causes, such as in the case of Alto Purus National Park in Peru, which has very little documented deforestation.
Protected areas and Indigenous territories in some countries did better than others. For example, those in Colombia, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana were found to be significant carbon sinks, while those in Bolivia and Venezuela were noted to be significant sources of carbon.
The team at Amazon Conservation said the data set can help shift the perspective from which carbon offsetting projects function. Typically, these projects monitor how carbon levels have changed over the years, while areas that are not threatened, like protected areas and Indigenous territories, are seen as passive stocks of carbon — hence not eligible for offset funding under conventional carbon accounting models.
“This data is questioning this worldview by saying that these areas are not passive at all,” Blaise Bodin, director of strategy and policy at Amazon Conservation, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The sink function of the forest has been completely absent from the discussion on funding.”
Bodin said the data underscore the critical importance of parts of the forests that offset emissions and act as a buffer against deforestation. He added it’s imperative to incorporate these parts of the forest into carbon projects.
“What’s the funding mechanism to protect those areas that aren’t threatened?” Bodin said. “Because we shouldn’t take for granted that they are going to be there for the next 100 years.”
Banner image: A tiger-legged monkey tree frog in Peruvian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Abhishyant Kidangoor is a staff writer at Mongabay. Find him on 𝕏 @AbhishyantPK.
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