“The data shows that land stewardship and protection fundamentally shift the carbon storage and emissions dynamics in the Amazon,” Chris Anderson, senior scientist at Planet, told Mongabay in an email interview. Anderson said the data hint at two scenarios that lie ahead for the planet: “one under land stewardship that promotes climate resilience versus one that doesn’t.”

The Amazon needs more people protecting the remaining forest and reforesting areas that have been degraded. Most environmental organisations just ask for money, but without people actually stewarding the land, it’s highly questionable what effect any donations will have in the long term. There are people working on buying up land near a national park in order to expand the area under protection, but they need more people to help, even if only in the form of buying forested land and doing nothing with it or buying pasture land and letting it reforest itself.