ERA in Central and South America
The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern regions of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so immense that less than 1 percent of its millions of species have been studied by scientists for their possible uses. When an acre of tropical rainforest is lost, the impact on the number of plant and animal species lost and their possible uses is staggering. Scientists estimate that we are losing more than one hundred species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation.
Tropical rainforests are most threatened by large-scale agriculture (especially soybeans), clearing for cattle pasture, subsistence agriculture by poor farmers, and logging. Every year the Amazon loses an area of forest the size of New Jersey due to these activities.
The destruction of world forests releases about two billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon per year, most of these losses coming from the tropical forests of Asia, South America, and Africa. In fact the destruction of tropical rainforests accounts for almost 20% of global carbon emissions, more than the entire transportation sector. This is yet another important reason why the conservation and sustainable management of rainforests in Latin America is an important objective for global sustainability and the well being of local communities.
ERA is collaborating with community partners in Ecuador to design and develop forest conservation and reforestation projects that will result in climate change mitigation benefits, conserve rainforests, and support community sustainability. These projects are based on community participation and Indigenous Peoples involvement with decision making processes to insure that local interests are recognized and addressed. ERA continues to work with organizations in other areas of Latin America, including Panama, to explore qualify additional projects.