Local rainfall trends and their perception by the Amazonian communities

Climate change in the Amazon region is the subject of many studies not onlydue to its stance as an emblematic ecosystem but also as a region where changes have beendramatic for over 30 years, mainly due to deforestation. We investigate how people settledin the Amazon perceive environmental changes by comparing these perceptions withsatellite rainfall data for 12 sites representing the community diversity in the region. Perceptionsare varied and agreement with physical, measured data is not always good. However, the arc of deforestation, where the downward trend of rainfall is more strongly observed,also appears as the region where the populations have the highest perception of rainfallchange.