The Amazon Rainforest is not only an environmental treasure but also an invaluable economic asset for Brazil. A new report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) and the Amazônia 2030 project shows how deforestation in the Amazon impacts the so-called flying rivers — moisture currents formed by the forest’s evapotranspiration — compromising water supply and climate stability in several regions of the country.

According to the study, the loss of forest cover already generates billions of reais in annual economic damage, especially to the energy sector. Hydropower plants such as Itaipu and Belo Monte alone have lost the potential to generate 3,700 GWh per year — equivalent to the total electricity consumption of the entire state of Rondônia — representing more than R$ 1 billion in annual losses.

Impacts across multiple sectors

The report reveals that the effects of deforestation also threaten other key sectors beyond energy:

• Water supply: critical systems like Cantareira (SP) lie along the path of the flying rivers and could face reduced water availability, especially during drought periods.

• Agriculture: rain-dependent crops such as soy, corn, and sugarcane face increasing risks; drought-related losses reached R$ 186 billion between 2013 and 2022.

• Wildfires: reduced rainfall weakens vegetation resilience, increasing fire risks — more than 30 million hectares were affected in 2024.

• Waterways: record droughts have disrupted grain transportation, potentially undermining Brazil’s competitiveness in global trade.

Keeping the forest standing as a national strategy

The researchers warn that by 2050, up to 47% of the Amazon may experience disturbances that would irreversibly compromise the provision of ecosystem services.

“Protecting the Amazon is not just an environmental agenda — it is a strategic imperative for Brazil’s energy, water, and food security,”
say authors Gustavo Pinto and João Pedro Arbache, from CPI/PUC-Rio.

The study underscores that public policies to curb deforestation — such as PPCDAm, which reduced the forest destruction rate fivefold between 2004 and 2014 — are essential to keeping the country on a sustainable growth trajectory.