While deforestation rates fell by nearly 50% in 2023, the Amazon continues to battle critical threats.

In recent months, it has suffered a devastating drought and record wildfires, which release large amounts of planet-heating greenhouse gases. Fire alerts are 79% higher than average for this time of year.

The Amazon has shrunk by the size of France and Germany in the last four decades, according to a report this week, with researchers noting an "alarming increase" in forest land cleared for mining, agriculture or livestock farming.

Scientists fear up to half the rainforest could hit a "tipping point" by 2050 due to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme drought, deforestation and wildfires. They warn crossing this threshold could intensify regional climate change and risk the Amazon becoming permanently degraded or turning into savanna.

The vast rainforest is not only a source of immense biodiversity, its trees and soil store the equivalent of 15-20 years of CO2 emissions and help stabilize the Earth's temperatures.

As such, Jack Hurd, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance, which supports companies in removing deforestation from their supply chains sees a global responsibility to preserve the Amazon so it can continue to provide "goods and services for now and into the future."

Although nearly two-thirds of the Amazon lies in Brazil, the vast rainforest spans eight countries, including Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

Its forests are worth more alive and standing than cut or destroyed, according to data from the World Bank. The Brazilian Amazon alone generates an annual value of $317 billion (€284 billion), a calculation based largely on the value it holds to the world as a carbon store. This far surpasses the $43 billion-$98 billion (€38.6 billion-€88 billion) estimated value of clearing the rainforest for timber,........

© Deutsche Welle