Amazon Rainforest: Deforestation

History of the Amazon Rainforest:

Historically, the Amazon rainforest has been in existence for at least 55 million years. It is speculated that the rainforest was likely formed during the Eocene era. It appeared following a global decrease of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened which in turn, provided a warm, moist climate to the Amazon basin. Following the extinction of the dinosaurs, the climate became wetter and the rainforest began to spread out across the continent. The ecosystem of the rainforest depended on the era of the world: During the Ice ages, the Amazon was mostly savanna and montane forest. The Savanna divided the patches of rainforest into smaller "islands" and separated existing species for periods long enough to allow genetic differentiation. However, when the ice ages, ended, the forest was again joined and the species that were once one had diverged significantly enough to be constitute designation as separate species, adding to the tremendous diversity of the region.

Humans Impact on the Ecosystem: UGLY

The Amazon Rainforest is a placed of unparalleled biodiversity and about one in ten known species in the world lives in the Rainforest; this constituters the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. In fact, the Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. The Amazon Rainforest can be considered the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides more than 20 percent of the world's oxygen. The incredibly diverse rainforest provides at least 80% of the developed world's diet and some of the foods include: avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, rice, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, ginger, coffee, lemons and pineapples. In fact, at least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforest with only 200 now in use in the Western World. In addition, the rainforest has valuable plants used for prescription drugs: currently, 121 prescription drugs are sold worldwide that come from rainforest plants. As we can see, it is safe to presume that the rainforest provides the world many benefits and its biodiversity and ecosystem is something we should be in awe of.

However, within this century, the scale of human pressures on the Amazon rainforest has increased immensely. Due to the over consumption of people today, increasing demand in supplies have lead to an adverse effect on the Amazon Rainforest. In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest and sadly enough, today more than half has gone up in smoke due to avid deforestation.There is now an overwhelming amount of rainforest that is being destroyed by fire, axes, and chainsaws on a massive scale to clear lands for pastures, and to take the rainforest's wood. As a result of the reckless deforestation, there has been a huge loss of biodiversity and uncertainty about the environment. In fact, since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers of rainforest have been destroyed (to put it into scale, this is the size of Greenland) and more than 20 percent of the Amazon Rainforest is already gone. Last year along, there was a 27% jump in deforestation from August 2010 to April 2011 and researches say that by this rate, the Amazon Rainforest will decrease by 40% by 2030. The majority of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest results from the actions of commercial and speculative interests, misguided by government policies, commercial exploitation of forest resources and inappropriate World Bank Projects. In Brazil specifically, the Amazon Rainforest deforestation is strongly correlated to the economic health of the country. Many people rely on the rainforest for their survival and interestingly, a significant amount of deforestation is supported by government land policies, thus encouraging poor farmers as well as wealthy entrepreneurs to take advantage of the


Amazon Rainforest Before Deforestation:

Source: http://www.goallover.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/amazon_rainforest.jpg



Amazon Rainforest After Deforestation:
Source: http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/15/93015-004-E3393152.jpg



Source: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2008/05/14/brazil-stephenferry-getty460.jpg



Source: http://photos.mongabay.com/11/0420defor568.jpg



Future Prospects for the Rainforest:

If we continue to let the things in the Rainforest occur, the future seems very bleak. Environmentalists are concerned about the loss of biodiversity due to not only the destruction of the forest, but also the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, which could accelerate global warming. With the clearing of the rainforest, the diversity of many animals and plant species are drastically decreasing. In addition, with continual deforestation, according to environmentalists, a loss of natural systems will be inevitable. The continuing loss of natural systems could make human activities increasingly vulnerable to ecological surprises in the future. By destroying the rain forests, we are essentially risking our own quality of future. We are gambling with the stability of climate and local weather, threatening the existence of other species and undermine the valuable services provided by biological surprises in the future.

Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest So Far:
source: http://photos.mongabay.com/11/0420map.jpg





Deforestation Figures for Brazil
Source: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html

Year Deforestation
[sq mi] Deforestation
[sq km] Change
[%]
1988 8,127 21,050
1989 6,861 17,770 -16%
1990 5,301 13,730 -23%
1991 4,259 11,030 -20%
1992 5,323 13,786 25%
1993 5,751 14,896 8%
1994 5,751 14,896 0%
1995 11,220 29,059 95%
1996 7,012 18,161 -38%
1997 5,107 13,227 -27%
1998 6,712 17,383 31%
1999 6,664 17,259 -1%
2000 7,037 18,226 6%
2001 7,014 18,165 0%
2002 8,260 21,651 17%
2003 9,805 25,396 19%
2004 10,722 27,772 9%
2005 7,341 19,014 -31%
2006 5,515 14,285 -49%
2007 4,498 11,651 -18%
2008 4,984 12,911 11%
2009 2,889 7,484 -42%

All figures derived from official National
Institute of Space Research (INPE) data. Individual state figures.

*For the 1978-1988 period the figures represent
the average annual rates of deforestation.


What Can be done to Save the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil?

Saving the rainforest is not simply making deforestation illegal, rather in order for the rainforest to be preserved, the underlying social, economic and political reasons for deforestation must be recognized and addressed. Because the reasons behind deforestation aren't ethically distinguishable (many people cutting down trees to survive), we feel like there are different alternatives that may prompt a more sustainable development. One place to start would rehabilitate and increase productivity of formerly forested lands. By making more advanced and efficient farming tools, productivity is increased which in turn generates higher yielding crops within a smaller area, reducing the amount of rainforest that needs to be cut. By rehabilitating the already destroyed lands, we can make it so that we can heal and help grow more trees in the damaged areas. Secondly, expanding protection areas (areas in the rainforest that are sanctioned by the government to be essentially untouchable) and by prioritizing areas for protection, i.e. focusing on biological hotspots, we can help heal and avoid devastating the already damaged rainforest. Another way to save the Amazon rainforest is land policy reform. Specifically, under Brazilian Law, much of the Amazon is essentially an open access resource, so there is little incentive to use forest lands or resources in a sustainable manner. In fact many people take advantage of this freedom and waste the land by "using" all the land until it is no longer viable. To remedy this wasteful use of land, laws should be made to restrict wasteful practices and force people to use sustainable methods. This brings us to our last "solution", sustainable development. We feel that perhaps the best way to prevent deforestation is to develop a new conservation policy based on the principle of sustainable use and development of rain forests. We need to educate not only the legislative power, but also the everyday people who are actually using the forest for their own survival. By educating them, we provide them with different means of getting the same results, but with smarter methods. For example, using better technology or by using the land wisely, we can save more rain forest. In addition, by educating people about sustainability, we can also ensure them that economic success does not result in increased deforestation and convince rural people to not rely so much on the traditional use of natural resources around them. Instead, we can teach them to use the rainforest's resources in a more effective manner to maximize productivity and to minimize the impact on the environment.

Conclusion:

The Amazon Rainforest is a land of great beauty and a place of unsurpassed biological diversity and while environmental losses and deforestation of the rain forests have yet to reach the point of collapse, the continual disappearance of the rain forest is a key issue that should not be ignored. Biodiversity is essentially what makes life on Earth livable for our species and by destroying areas of biodiversity like the Amazon Rainforest, we are basically destroying ourselves. As such, the issue of deforestation should be a pressing issue for everyone, not just the people in the immediate vicinity. By losing pieces of the Amazon rainforest, the repercussions far out way the positives that are gained by plowing or burning down the rainforest. While conserving the rainforest cannot be done over night, the best we can do is to that we can establish some ground by educating people about the consequences of continual deforestation and establish protection areas and enforce sustainable development policies.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Brazil#History

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13449792

http://www.mongabay.com/saving_brazils_forests.html

http://travel.mongabay.com/brazil/images/brazil_0541.html

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0420-protected_amazon.html

http://www.mongabay.com/saving_brazils_forests.html#rehab