The Brazilian state of Pará has recognized over 1.3 million acres of some of the tallest and most valuable trees in the Amazon rainforest as a protected area, according to Good News Network.
Pará state governor Helder Barbalho established the Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park in September. Containing over 100 individual trees from the pea family Dinizia excelsa — considered the tallest tree in the tropical Americas at over 290 feet — the area has now been reorganized for stricter protection, as many of the trees are hundreds of years old.
In 2019, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research discovered the trees along the Yari and Ipatinga rivers through a randomized satellite survey of the Amazon. The survey mapped 850 different 900-acre blocks of remote forest and found that some trees were much taller than expected.
"So we started to look into what could have given us these numbers that were so far from standard," said Eric Bastos Gorgens, a forest engineering researcher who was part of the team that analyzed the data. "And as we started looking at the data more carefully, we realized they weren't errors. They were, in fact, giant trees."
The Andes Amazon Fund helped secure funding for the establishment of the park.
The fund has helped establish over 42 million acres of protected areas similar to the Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park and has secured 48 separate land titles for indigenous people. The park's decree also notes that the establishment will not interfere with the activities of indigenous people.
Ensuring the survival and protection of trees like this is now more important. Scientists from some of the world's leading conservation organizations have determined that at least 38% of tree species worldwide are at risk of extinction.
This could threaten thousands of species of endangered animals, put the world's natural flood control systems at risk, and significantly worsen the effects of the warming planet.
Due largely to the unregulated expansion of farming and logging, at least 192 countries are at risk of seeing tree species go extinct. To help combat this, scientists, researchers, and world leaders are already taking action to preserve as many trees as possible.
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This isn't the first time this has happened. Earlier this year, researchers found that 82% of the tree species in Brazil's Atlantic Forest biome are at risk of extinction. Elsewhere, in Florida, the Key Largo tree cactus suffered local extinction because of rising sea levels.
In Brazil, this latest discovery and initiative is a positive in the ongoing fight to protect the Amazon.
"The Giant Trees State Park is very important for the protection of a unique Amazonian forest that is a marvel for the world due to the size of its trees," said Enrique Ortiz, senior program director for the Andes Amazon Fund. "It is also a critical area that provides ecosystem services which are particularly important during these times when we see extreme rains, droughts, and climatic events."
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