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What Amazon do we want?

Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos

PhD in Natural Sciences

Stockholm Environment Institute Asia CentreJuly 2015

The Amazon is one of the large remaining natural areas of the world, with many ecosystems that

are shelter of a very rich biodiversity and play a significant role in global environmental processes.

However, deforestation may bring irreversible damage to its ecosystems, to its traditional inhabitants and

to the whole world. This essay aims at exploring alternative futures for the sustainable development of

Amazon.

One of the first images that may come to our minds when we thin of Amazon is the magnanimous

Amazon forest. However, a closer loo will unveil many different inds of forests, such as flooded forests,

dry land !Terra Firme" forests, cloud forests, mountain forests, mangrove swamps, palm forests !Mata de

Cocais", among other possible classifications. #esides the forests, there are areas of $avannah, divided

between Cerrado !$outh American grassland savannah" and Campinarana !swampy savannahs on

seasonal waterlogged sandy soils". The water environment, including the largest river system in the world,

can also be considered as a proper ecosystem. All these ecosystems comprise the biggest pool of species

biodiversity in the world, corresponding to approximately 1% & of the world's nown biodiversity

!(ewinsohn ) *rado, +%%", while many !or most" of it remains yet to be discovered and studied properly.

-oreover, the Amazon is not completely unpopulated. Along centuries, ative $outh Americans

and immigrants colonized small tribes and villages and learned to live sustainably with the natural

ecosystems. /uring that time, they learned how to use native plants and animals to produce their food,

traditional medicine, shelters and tools. This nowledge has been used as an entrance door for

pharmaceutics research, in order to develop new modern medicines. Typical examples are the plants

0urare ine !Curare sp." and the 2uinine !Chinchona sp.", which were initially used by ative $outh

Americans, and later allowed the development of muscle relaxants and anti3malarial medicine,

respectively. otwithstanding, despites the enormous profit of the pharmaceutics industry with these

medicines, the ative $outh Americans have not received any share of it. 4n order to change this in5ustices

and to help in the conservation of the traditional nowledge, the 0onvention on #iological /iversity of

166+, signed by 167 countries, includes rules for e8uitable sharing of the benefits provided by the

traditional nowledge of the use of biodiversity.

Another interesting aspect of the traditional communities is their function in storing a wide variety

of traditional agricultural plants. One example is the high genetic diversity of cassava cultivated by

traditional people in Amazon, that may reach more than 9 varieties !:lias et al., +%%1; :mperaire )

*eroni, +%%9". These crop varieties were selected during centuries and are adapted to the local climate,

soils, and diseases.

evertheless, the increasing global demand for natural resources, especially for food and wood,

is leading to deforestation of Amazon. 4n the deforesting cycle, the logging companies sell cleared land to

cattle ranchers, who overuse the land for cattle and, after the soil lost its fertility, then move to new

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deforested lands. The expansion of agriculture also displaces the cattle ranchers to new areas in the

border of the forests, aggravating this trend. $ince 169%, almost +%& of Amazon has been deforested

!#utler, +%1

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again. The rotation among the blocs would allow a sustainable yield of wood. One interesting result of

the rotation system is that, with constant plant colonization of the new open areas inside the forest, the

overall biodiversity of the ecosystems tends to increase !>illman, +%%6, p. 6%36". The area under

sustainable management can also be used to produce ot Timber =orest *roducts T=* 3, such as honey,

building poles, medicinal plants, and material for weaving, basetry and thatch handcraft.

:ven so, the comparison between the short term profits of deforesting versus sustainable

management options may still tempt many entrepreneurs to continue their large scale deforesting and

associated cattle raising activities. One way to counterbalance that scenario is to direct money for

sustainable management of the Amazon ecosystems in retribution to their environmental services.

ational and local governments may provide some of these funds, based in the local and regional benefits

from Amazon ecosystems, but international organizations may also help, due to the global benefits of

conserving Amazon.

4n conclusion, the benefits of conserving the Amazon ecosystems, in virtue of its intrinsic value

and the potential benefits for local people and for the global society, 5ustify the efforts for its sustainable

management. 4n order to cope with the deforestation, policies for environmental surveillance and

payment for environmental services may help to reduce the pressure for new logging areas. These policies

would help turning the balance in favor of pro5ects for sustainable management of the ecosystems,

including rotation of blocs for wood extraction and complimentary production of T=*.

References

#utler, B. A. !+%1illman, -. !+%%6" (ife in Amazon. 4nC The Open niversity. :nvironmentC 5ourneys through a changing

world. #oo and //. G, The Open niversity

(ewinsohn, T. -.; *rado, *. 4. !+%%" How -any $pecies Are There in #razilI 0onservation #iology 16,

+%%, pp. 7163+rath, /.; $himada, F.; $ticler, 0. !+%1" Jhy is Amazon /eforestation 0limbingIhttpCDDnews.mongabay.comD+%1@D11173nepstad3why3is3deforestation3climbing.html Accessed +1 Fune

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