Post on 15-Dec-2015
Twenty years after the goal of rescuing the Amazon rain forest first captured world attention, deforestation
and the burning of vast territories
are again climbing.
Nineteen percent of the forests and woodlands
in South America have been lost,
with most of the recent losses occurring in and along the margins of the Amazon
rainforest.
Ecological concerns related to the burning of theAmazon forest include:
• an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
• the loss of species
• the reduction in biodiversity in one of the most biologically diverse parts of the world.
A new report by the Brazilian congressional committee
investigating foreign logging companies
estimates that the Amazon is being lost at a
rate of 20,000 square miles a year, three times
the previous estimate.
For at least the last hundred years,
humans have cleared forests
to create either grazing lands or
croplands.
It is important to realize that these croplands and
pastures are the basis of subsistence for the
developing countries of the Western Hemisphere.
What is known from
satellite analysis proves
that deforestation is occurring
over a larger area
than previously estimated.
The next slide was taken from
a satellite photograph over the region of Rhondonia,
Brazil.
The extensive logging operations
can be seen, as well as cleared sections for crops, and smoke from slash and
burn agricultural practices.
This more distant satellite image of the same area shows sections of the
rainforest almost totally barren due to clear-cutting
practices of logging companies.
A more dramatic vision of the tremendous changes in
Rhondonia can be seen by looking at
false-color images from satellites.
The following image is of the
same region in the mid 1970s. The red color indicates
heavy growth of rainforest vegetation, with a small road
running along the rivers.
Less than 20 years later, the next false-color image of the same region shows logging damage and the establishment of a logging town.
The acres of rainforest logged is equal to the size of the state of Connecticut!
This epoch of deforestation was even government
subsidized;principally by the
construction of the road that assisted with the spread of forest clearing.
It was the Brazilian government's intention to encourage agricultural expansion
in the Amazon and thereby solve a rapidly growing urban population
problem.
The demand in Europe and the United States
for hardwoods like mahogany,
used for furniture, has ushered in large
illegal logging operations throughout the Amazon.
New research from the region strongly suggests that fires are also rapidly becoming as great a threat to the
biological integrity of the Amazon as is deforestation.
The state of the world's rain forests is particularly
distressing now that global warming has again become a major
concern.
Growing forests help absorb the gases that warm the
atmosphere.
Burning those
forests, of course, adds
to the problem.
Eco-tourism, logging, illegal mining
and government inaction are also responsible
for invasions of indigenous lands and a near doubling
of diseases affecting Indians.
Increased fatalities from
common diseases
such as flu, colds,
tuberculosis and measles
are devastating indigenous
tribes.
The government appears caught between international pressure to reduce the amount of burning and deforestation, and the influence ofpowerful domestic lobbies from the logging industry, farmers and large landholders.
Lacking enforcement muscle,
the government environmental agency ultimately collects very few of the fines it imposes.
In a recent interview, the President of Brazil acknowledged that the agency needed more money and muscle.
As part of the United States’ overall effort
to reduce the threats of global climate change,
the U.S. donated $30 million dollars
to fund preservation of the Brazilian rainforest.
The money helped launch an international fund
of seven industrialized countries, which is
coordinated by the government of Brazil.
The Amazon, responsible for maintenance
of global ecological systems,
will be lost within 50 years
if current trends
continue.