Ecosystems and Poverty

A recently published study has quantified and mapped aboveground live biomass across the Amazon.  With all the possible opportunities for payment schemes for carbon through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the possibilities through avoided deforestation, this dataset will surely be useful for looking at opportunities for poverty alleviation through payment schemes for carbon.  The study used an innovative combination of satellite-based data, and ground-truthed plot measurements alongside some fairly complex algorithms to arrive at numbers of aboveground live biomass (AGLB).  The data therefore captures the differences in AGLB depending on the different land-uses across the Amazon, and maps it out at 1km resolution.  Note that the entire Amazon is found to have 86PgC.  I had to look up what the Pg represents in PgC : Petagrams.  That is 10¹⁵ g, or 10¹² kg.  An awful lot of carbon.