Rainforest preservation benefits biodiversity and helps combat climate change, but it also significantly enhances the health of local human populations. A recent study from the University of Bonn and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil highlights that efforts to address slash-and-burn practices lead to a substantial decrease in air pollution. Consequently, there is a reduction in hospitalizations and fatalities related to respiratory illnesses. The findings are detailed in the journal Nature Communications, Earth & Environment.
Preserving rainforests not only protects biodiversity and aids the climate but also improves the wellness of people living in those areas. This conclusion comes from a new study conducted by the University of Bonn in collaboration with the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. The research indicates that interventions against slash-and-burn farming significantly lower airborne particulate pollution, which in turn decreases hospitalizations and deaths from respiratory diseases. These results have been published in the journal Nature Communications, Earth & Environment.
In 2019, nearly 70,000 square kilometers of rainforest were set ablaze in the Amazon, a region that saw wildfires despite its typically damp climate. Large landowners and illegal land grabbers often clear vast tracts of forest for pasture or agriculture, which destroys ecosystems and accelerates climate change. A significant yet less emphasized consequence of this practice is the smoke from the fires, which contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular issues among local residents.
“We aimed to determine the extent to which forest conservation initiatives influence the health of individuals in these areas,” states Yannic Damm, a researcher affiliated with Prof. Dr. Jan Börner’s team at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn. He collaborated on this study with Dr. Nicolas Gerber and Prof. Dr. Britaldo Soares-Filho from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
Impact of Forest Protection on Public Health
The Brazilian Amazon is categorized into two regions: the legally-defined Amazon, demarcated by the boundaries of its states, and the Amazon biome, which outlines the original forest area. “From 2004 to 2010, various laws were enacted to halt the ongoing deforestation plight of the Amazon,” explains Damm. “In our research, we focused on three specific measures that apply solely within the Amazon biome and were implemented starting in 2006.”
The most recognized of these measures is likely the Soy Moratorium, where multinational trading companies agreed not to purchase soy produced in recently deforested zones. “As a result, there has been a notable reduction in deforestation pressure,” Damm elaborates. However, this moratorium—alongside the other two measures—applies only to the Amazon biome, excluding the adjacent Legal Amazon region with inferior protection status.
The researchers leveraged this distinction by comparing several hundred municipalities bordering the biome with neighboring areas that fell outside it and thus weren’t subject to the restrictions. “This allowed us to ascertain the impact of enhanced protective measures on public health,” Damm emphasizes. The team assessed particulate matter levels in the air and examined the factors contributing to hospital visits or mortality rates in the studied regions.
Saving Lives Through Protective Measures
The data clearly illustrated the effects of forest conservation strategies on various health indicators. After 2006, airborne fine particulate matter concentrations decreased across all investigated regions, with a nearly 7 percent sharper decline in areas within the biome boundaries. Hospital admissions and deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular conditions also reduced. Approximately four million people inhabit the regions affected by these three measures, with research suggesting that the lower air pollution has saved around 680 lives annually among this population.
“Our research conveys two important messages,” states Prof. Dr. Jan Börner of ILR, also involved in the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) Sustainable Futures and the Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob” at the University of Bonn. “First, we can effectively combat rainforest destruction. Secondly, doing so not only protects species diversity and contributes to global climate health but also provides significant and immediate benefits to local communities—a factor that is often overlooked when evaluating conservation measures.”
