Amazon Forest Inventory Network

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About RAINFOR

Taking the pulse of the world’s largest rainforest  

The Amazon plays a key role in our planet’s biosphere, with more life, water, and carbon than any other forest on Earth. RAINFOR partners share a long-term dedication to understanding Amazon ecosystems from the ground up, applying standardized techniques to measure, monitor, and interpret their behaviour.

Aerial photograph taken from a helicopter in the north eastern Amazon, (c) Jake Bryant - Envirofoto.com

Latest News

Manuals

The RAINFOR consortium have published the following manuals:

  • RAINFOR ethical, data and publication policy
  • Fieldwork manuals
  • Monitoring carbon processes in permanent plots
  • Supporting sustainable use of forest resources: Integrated assessment of forest biodiversity and community use
Trees

Publications

Welcome to the RAINFOR Website

The Amazon Forest Inventory Network is a long-term, international collaboration to understand the dynamics of Amazon ecosystems. Since the turn of the millennium we have jointly developed a framework for systematic, monitoring the forests from the ground. This framework is centred on permanent forest plots that track the behaviour of individual trees and species, but also includes extensive collection of soil and plant biogeochemical data, and more intensive and high frequency monitoring of carbon cycle processes at key sites. RAINFOR works with partners across the nations of Amazonia, taking account of the modulating role of environmental variables like soil nutrition, and the need to help develop new generations of Amazon ecologists. The work of RAINFOR is currently supported by funding agencies in Brazil, Colombia, the UK, and the EU.

 

mejorar los cálculos de biomasa, Madre de Dios, Perú (photo: Rosa Goodman, 2010) Allpahuayo, Peru 2005 (photo: Yadvinder Mahli) Parque Noel Kempff Mercado, Bolivia 2009 Nouragues, French Guiana (photo: Ted Feldpausch 2012)