Abordando os efeitos biofísicos das florestas nas políticas nacionais sobre o clima: oportunidades no Chile

This report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) examines how Chile can integrate the non-carbon biophysical effects of forests into its national climate policies. It argues that forests influence climate stability through processes like albedo, evapotranspiration, surface roughness, and aerosols, which can significantly impact local and regional temperatures and rainfall beyond the global carbon cycle. Using Chile as a case study, the document identifies opportunities to enhance the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), long-term climate strategies, REDD+ frameworks, and subnational development plans to better account for these biophysical cooling effects and mitigate the warming caused by deforestation.

• Forests influence the climate through four primary non-carbon biophysical processes: albedo (solar energy reflection), evapotranspiration (moisture release that cools the surface), surface roughness (wind turbulence that lifts heat and moisture), and the release of aerosols and chemical compounds that affect cloud formation and atmospheric composition.
• Deforestation has distinct impacts across different scales: globally, tropical deforestation contributes 50% more to global warming than carbon accounting alone suggests; regionally, it can reduce precipitation across national borders (e.g., Brazilian Amazon deforestation affecting Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina); and locally, it can cause significant increases in average and extreme temperatures.
• Chile has experienced significant forest loss, with over 40% of its forest cover lost over recent centuries and a 12% reduction in tree cover since 2000. The sclerophyllous forest and shrubland (matorral) in the central region have been most affected, losing over 80% of their original natural ecosystem extent.
• Local deforestation in Chile has likely exacerbated climate impacts. Conversion of the Chilean matorral led to an average surface temperature increase of 1.4 °C during the dry season, reaching up to 4 °C in central areas where native vegetation was replaced by pastures and plantations.
• Chile's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) could be improved by adjusting reforestation goals to favor native species over exotic ones. Exotic pine plantations, which cover 1.3 million hectares in Chile, offer limited climate benefits due to lower albedo compared to native forests.
• Existing Chilean policy frameworks provide opportunities to integrate biophysical effects: the ARClim risk assessment platform could be expanded to include deforestation-induced warming; the Long-Term Climate Strategy could better analyze non-carbon benefits of its 1 million hectare protected area expansion and 2.5 million hectare ecosystem restoration goal; and the ENCCRV (REDD+ strategy) could include biophysical benefits as performance indicators.
• Subnational development plans in Chile's 16 regions and 346 communes could be used to implement targeted local conservation. For example, the commune of Futrono has already allocated funding to preserve a municipal forest.

APA

Haller, V., & Seymour, F. (n.d.). Abordando os efeitos biofísicos das florestas nas políticas nacionais sobre o clima: oportunidades no Chile. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/addressing-biophysical-effects-of-forests-national-climate-policies-chile-spanish.pdf

Chicago

Haller, Vincent, and Frances Seymour. Abordando os efeitos biofísicos das florestas nas políticas nacionais sobre o clima: oportunidades no Chile. World Resources Institute, n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/addressing-biophysical-effects-of-forests-national-climate-policies-chile-spanish.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Haller |first1=Vincent |last2=Seymour |first2=Frances |title=Abordando os efeitos biofísicos das florestas nas políticas nacionais sobre o clima: oportunidades no Chile |publisher=World Resources Institute |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/addressing-biophysical-effects-of-forests-national-climate-policies-chile-spanish.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hallerndabordando, author = {Haller, Vincent and Seymour, Frances}, title = {{Abordando os efeitos biofísicos das florestas nas políticas nacionais sobre o clima: oportunidades no Chile}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/addressing-biophysical-effects-of-forests-national-climate-policies-chile-spanish.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }