Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, but relentless deforestation threatens hundreds of species of plants and animals.
- Recently, a team of researchers created a computer program designed to optimize how forest land can best be used.
- The approach could be used by governments and organizations in other parts of the world to maximize biodiversity gains while minimizing economic losses.
New research shows that using a computer program to optimize land use in Brazil’s dwindling Atlantic Forest could triple biodiversity gains, take massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere, and save billions of dollars in costs.
The Atlantic Forest is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, home to an extraordinarily large number of species that can be found nowhere else. It’s thought to have once covered some 500,000 square miles, but today, due to logging and agribusiness, only an estimated 7 to 11 percent of the forest remains. Some scientists believe that forest cover needs to be restored to 30 percent in order to maintain biodiversity.
It’s a tricky problem, however, because the region’s economy relies heavily upon industries that practice deforestation. That’s why a team of international researchers recently created software designed to optimize how land could best be used in the forest.
The approach uses a linear programming method…
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