A Brazilian Climate Observatory study found that the dense vegetation in the states of Amazonas and Amapá, regions whose territories are more than half composed of Conservation Units and Indigenous Territories, was able to remove all the CO2e that had been released to their atmosphere in 2021.

Brazil’s most well-preserved state, Amazonas still holds 91% of its standing forest, and over half of its vast territory is composed of Conservation Units and Indigenous Territories. Here, some 800 square kilometers of forest provide a range of ecosystem services to the planet. One is removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

This absorption is driven by photosynthesis in plants, which need large quantities of carbon to grow and survive. This means that they capture CO2 from the atmosphere, returning only the oxygen.

In 2021, the dense vegetation in Amazonas’ protected areas captured nearly 150 million tons of carbon equivalent (CO2e) : The standardized international measure for the quantity of greenhouse gases (GHG) which converts them all into the common unit of carbon dioxide., which is responsible for global warming. This number is higher than the state’s gross emissions that year, meaning the state had a negative balance of emissions in 2021. The term “equivalent” means that other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide were also accounted for, but were converted into the common unit of carbon dioxide.

In the nine Brazilian states that lie within the Legal Amazon, Conservation Units: A territory that is governmentally demarcated, managed, and protected for the maintenance of ecosystems and natural resources to benefit society. and Indigenous Territories: Federally recognized and demarcated territories for the preservation of Indigenous ways of life and culture throughout Brazil. removed 27% (354.4 million tons) of the gross CO2 equivalent emitted in the region in 2021. Of the total volume removed inside the Amazon, 64% was removed inside protected areas: Regions protected by environmental legislation on land or in freshwater and marine environments..