The project has not been without its obstacles, he adds. There were delays between the project’s inception and building the ring structures. In 2017, the team had hoped to have two or three years of baseline data already collected, says Lapola, “but the money [for the rings] wasn’t coming”. He says that the team continued to collect baseline measurements, such as CO₂ levels in the forest.

In November 2021, as world leaders convened in Glasgow, UK, to debate climate policy at the UN COP26 climate summit, the UK government announced a donation of £2.5 million (US$3.35 million) to AmazonFACE. The Brazilian Ministry of Science invested another 32 million reais (US$5.7 million) in 2022, and finally the rings could go up.