Protect Wild Places MAAP Reports

As presented in MAAP #118, Amazon Conservation launched a real-time fire monitoring app that specializes in the rapid and user-friendly detection and visualization of major Amazon fires. In a novel approach, the app combines data from the atmosphere (aerosol emissions in smoke) and the ground (heat anomalies) to effectively monitor large Amazon fires. As detailed below, the app just […]

Put Science and Technology to Work MAAP Reports

Thanks to the support of the USAID, via the Prevent Project, dedicated to the prevention and combat of environmental crimes in the Amazon, we conducted a detailed analysis of recent illegal gold mining deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon. The objective is to understand the trends from early 2017 to June 2020 (which includes the first part of the mandatory quarantine […]

Put Science and Technology to Work MAAP Reports

Fire Alert vs. Aerosol Emission Data Images 1 and 2 shows us how aerosol emission data allows users to prioritize hundreds (or thousands) of heat-based fire alerts. In other words, the aerosol data indicates just the fires that are  actually burning lots of biomass and putting out abundant smoke.

Protect Wild Places MAAP Reports

As presented in MAAP #118, Amazon Conservation launched a real-time fire monitoring app that specializes in detection of elevated aerosol emissions in the smoke coming from burning Amazon fires. As detailed below, the app just detected the fourth major Amazon fire of 2020 on June 17. All four fires thus far have been in the state of Mato Grosso and […]

Protect Wild Places Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC, June 5 – Amazon Conservation revealed in a new report the ability to predict the exact location of major 2020 fires in the Brazilian Amazon, using deforestation data. The fires in the Brazilian Amazon made international headlines last year. Through analysis of satellite imagery archives, Amazon Conservation made the significant discovery that many fires […]

Protect Wild Places Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC, June 10 – Amazon Conservation today announced the launch of a new real-time fire monitoring app, hosted by Google Earth Engine, in anticipation of the 2020 fire season. The app specializes in providing real-time detection and prediction of large fires across the Amazon basin to help prioritize containment efforts by key actors on […]

Protect Wild Places MAAP Reports

As presented in MAAP #118, Amazon Conservation launched a real-time fire monitoring app that specializes in detection of elevated aerosol emissions from burning Amazon fires. As detailed below, the app detected the second major 2020 fire on June 8, 2020 in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Step 1. Detection of elevated emissions in the southeastern Brazilian Amazon (Mato Grosso). Step 2. Zoom […]

Opinion Pieces

  Friends of the Amazon, We are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many other Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color that yet again expose the systemic racism and violence ingrained in our society. We kneel in solidarity with their families, the protesters, and […]

Put Science and Technology to Work MAAP Reports

Here we present a first look at 2020 deforestation of primary forest in the Colombian Amazon, in relation to the new published annual data for 2019.* This new data confirms that deforestation decreased in 2019 (91,400 hectares) after a peak in 2018 (153,900 hectares). Table 1 shows the recent trend: a major deforestation spike following the 2016 peace agreement (between the Colombian government […]

Amazon Birder’s Bulletin

The Biodiversity Day Contest: “If you could fly, which bird would you be?” By María Elena Gutierrez Most of us living in the city would enjoy the opportunity to spend quarantine in a house in the middle of the forest, closer to nature.  We could appreciate spending the day listening to the birds, smelling the […]