Overview
- Across the tropics, each square metre of forest contributes about 240 litres of rainfall annually, rising to around 300 litres in the Amazon, which equates to roughly 2.4 million litres per hectare each year.
- The analysis combines satellite observations with latest-generation climate model simulations and is published in Communications Earth & Environment.
- Deforestation of roughly 80 million hectares in the Amazon is estimated to have reduced rainfall-generation benefits by nearly US$5 billion annually.
- Many major crops depend on more forest-generated moisture than their own footprint, with cotton using 607 litres per square metre and soybeans 501 litres per square metre.
- The authors urge embedding rainfall valuation in economic and legal frameworks to strengthen conservation finance, warning that Brazil’s largely rain-fed agriculture and water systems are increasingly exposed.