The giant tree, whose crown stands out in the Irataburo Reserve for Sustainable Development, between the states of Pará and Amapá, is Angelem vermelo (Dinizia excelsa), its height is 88.5 m and its diameter is 9.9 m.
Scientists say it’s the highest rate ever identified in the Amazon.
Researchers first saw it in satellite imagery in 2019 as part of a 3D mapping project.
A team of academics, environmentalists, and local guides set up an expedition to try and get there that same year.
But after a ten-day trek through rugged terrain, exhausted, with few provisions and a member ill, they are forced to return.
Three expeditions later reached the remote Vale do Jari, within the reserve, on the border between Amapá and Pará, many other giant trees, including the largest chestnut tree (Berthollhetia excelsa) ever found in the Amazon, at an altitude 66 metres.
But the giant Angelem Vermelho remained hidden until the expedition from September 12 to 25, when researchers traveled 250 kilometers up the river in speedboats and another 20 kilometers on foot through mountainous terrain to reach the specimen.
A member of this 19-person expedition was bitten by what the team doctor believes was a venomous spider.
But it was worth it, says forest engineer Diego Armando Silva of the Federal University of Amapá, who helped organize the trip.
“It’s a very enjoyable environment, one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen… divine,” Silva, 33, summed up to AFP. “It is a forested environment that man has never visited before. It is a very beautiful environment with abundant nature.”
After camping under the majestic tree, the group picked up foliage, soil and other samples, which will now be analyzed to study issues like the tree’s age (at least between 400 and 600 years, Silva estimates) and why the area has so many giant trees and how much carbon they store.
About half the giant trees’ weight is carbon absorbed by the atmosphere, which is key to helping halt climate change, Silva says.
But despite being far away, the giants of the region are threatened.
Wood from Argelim Vermelho is highly prized by loggers, and the RDS in Rio Iratapuru is being invaded by illegal miners, notorious for destroying the environment, said Jacqueline Pereira of the ecological group Amazon, who helped organize the expedition.
“We were excited [com a descoberta]”It’s critical at a time when the Amazon, which has reduced deforestation, is seeing a monthly record of areas that have experienced deforestation,” Pereira says.
In the past three years, the average annual deforestation in the legal Amazon has risen 75% compared to the previous decade.
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