Amazon Rainforest: Outlook for the Future

From WolfWikis

The Amazon rainforest is one of the world's greatest natural resources. Because its vegetation continuously recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, it has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet", with about 20% of earth's oxygen produced by the Amazon rainforest.^[1] Even though environmentalists and government policies forced the world to give more attention to the rain forest, the Amazon rain forest continues to suffer at alarming rates. This is mainly due to numerous types of farming done in the Amazon that depletes the biodiversity, large scale burning of the forest, and because the value of rainforest land perceived by short-sighted governments.^[2] US and Brazilian governments attempted to instate policies that protect the rain forest, but they have not been too successful. While deforestation rates inched down briefly in the mid-90s, mainly due to international pressure, they have been increasing ever since.^[3] According to Rainforest Action Network, more than an acre-and-a-half is lost every second of every day.^[4] If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rain forests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no rain forests remaining.^[4]

Presently, there have been many activist groups, like Greenpeace, who dedicate their time and efforts to preserve the Amazon rain forest. Greenpeace, along with other national campaigning organizations, have launched an ambitious proposal to end deforestation completely by the year 2015.^[5] To achieve this, these organizations attack deforestation by two methods. First, they wish to create financial incentives that promote forest protection rather than forest destruction, so everyone is encouraged to make use of the forest in a responsible manner.^[6] Second, they wish to strengthen the forest protection agencies so there is a hugely increased presence of state and government officials to monitor, control and inspect commercial activities properly to prevent illegal logging and land clearance for farming.^[6] Though there are organizations that try to save the rain forest, the depletion of resources continues to rise.

Contents 1 Forces of Destruction of the Amazon Rain forest 1.1 Logging 1.2 Grazing Land 1.3 Commercial Agriculture 1.4 Colonization and Infrastructure Boom 2 Sustainable Development 2.1 Reforestation 2.2 Shifting Cultivation 2.3 Rubber tapping 3 How YOU can help 3.1 Conservation Organizations 4 References 4.1 LMG Annotated Bibliography 4.2 Go Back

Forces of Destruction of the Amazon Rain forest

While deforestation in the Amazon is a result of several activities, perhaps the ones that affect the rain forest the most are

1. Logging
2. Cattle grazing
3. Commercial agriculture
4. Colonization and Infrastructure boom

Logging

Logging is one of the principal causes of the destruction of Amazon rain forest. The demand for teak, mahogany, rosewood, and other timber for furniture, building materials, charcoal, and other wood products produces much profit, but at a huge cost.^[2] In 2002 alone, 10,000 square miles in Brazil's Amazon region were deforested due to logging. ^[7] Fueled by the demand for cheap supplies of tropical timbers for both the Brazilian domestic market and the international market, the illegal timber trade represents a major factor in forest degradation. The Brazilian government itself estimates that 80 percent of all timber produced in the Brazilian Amazon is illegal in origin.^[8] By taking down trees, logging opens up the canopy, dries the forest floor and increases risk of fire.^[9]

Grazing Land

As the demand in the Western world for cheap meat increases, more rainforests are destroyed to provide grazing land for animals. Cattle ranching is considered to be the worst of all conceivable alternatives for the Amazon, on the basis of its high potential for soil degradation. ^[10] In Brazil alone, there are an estimated 220 million head of cattle, 20 million goats, 60 million pigs, and 700 million chickens.^[2] Figures from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) estimate between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of Europe's processed meat imports that came from Brazil rose from 40 to 74 percent.^[11] Government figures attributed 38 percent of deforestation from 1966-1975 to large-scale cattle ranching, a number which has since grown significantly.^[12]

Commercial Agriculture

In recent times, soybeans emerged as another contributor leading to the destruction of the rainforest. Thanks to a new variety of soybean developed by Brazilian scientists to flourish in rainforest climate, Brazil is on the verge of surpassing the United States as the world's leading exporter of soybeans.^[12] Although soybean fields do not directly replace forested areas of the Amazon, their expansion in the surrounding areas drive up land prices and push other less profitable farming back into forests.^[13] The problem with soybeans is not the way in which it is produced, but the amount of space it takes to cultivate soybeans. One lumber farmer comments on the production of soybeans, saying “The farmers are cutting down everything to make way for soy and that's good business for me."^[14] Soybean production is damaging to the rainforest and widespread farming of the beans only helps other local farmers who aid in the destruction of the rainforest.

Colonization and Infrastructure Boom

A significant amount of deforestation is caused by activities of poor farmers who are encouraged to settle on forest lands by government land policies as well as encouraged to construct roads.^[12] The building of roads aids in the deforestation process by removing valuable land for industrial reasons as well as providing access to logging sites. By tradition, wild lands and unsettled lands in the rain forest are free to those who clear the forest and till the soil, and those who clear it are protected by squatter’s rights and are allowed to live on and cultivate the land.^[2] This creates a conflict within the government because they are “undermining their conservation efforts by supporting unsustainable agricultural practices”.^[15]

Sustainable Development

So what does do well for the rainforest? There are numerous steps taken by environmentalists and governments to preserve the rainforest, and the following ideas can greatly help replenish lost biodiversity in the Amazon.

Reforestation

Trees should be replanted in areas of deforestation. The Curupira Reforestation Project, invested US$42 million in the installation of 2.1 million microchips in trees in order to monitor their growth using satellite imaging.^[16] It is expected that in 20 years the project will produce 4.2 million cubic meters of timber.^[16] The microchips, about the size of a grain of rice, will be implanted when the tree is planted and will be read periodically using an optic scanner.^[16] The aim of the project is to develop reforestation in compliance with the international environmental norms with the information about the tree's development to be passed on to a control unit and stored in a databank.^[16] Other projects include working with the National Institute for Natural Resources (IRENA) to institutionalize tree domestication in the Peruvian Amazon. Though IRENA’s lobbying efforts in the Peruvian government, policy changes are being introduced in the forestry laws to promote the sustainable use and conservation of tree genetic resources for future generations.^[17]

Shifting Cultivation

Farmers should rotate crops after 2-3 years to allow the rainforest to recover. Although shifting cultivation in its traditional form is ecologically sound, it has been met with some negative impact on the land. Increased population pressures in several parts of the Amazon have resulted in a shortening of the periods during which the land is left fallow, thus counteracting the restoration of the soils fertility.^[18] To combat that, there needs to be improved and more intense agricultural projects to promote alternative cultivating techniques based on those used by indigenous forest dwellers.^[19] "Polycultural fields—patchworks of perennial crops, annual crops, pasture land, secondary growth, and forest—could be the key to increasing agricultural productivity and reducing destruction in many rainforests".^[19]

Rubber tapping

About 99% of the world's natural rubber is produced from a fast-growing tree native to the lowland forests of the Amazon Basin.^[20] Instead of cutting down thousands of rubber trees each year, rubber tapping is a legal and more environmentally friendly approach of sustaining the environment.^[21] When a tree matures at the age of six or seven years, the latex is collected from a diagonal incision in the tree trunk.^[21] The tapping process does not affect the health of the tree and the tree wound later heals itself.^[22]

How YOU can help

• Click to give at the Rain Forest site. Each click helps save 11.4 square feet of rain forest
• Learn Five Basic Steps to Saving Rainforests^[23]
  • "TREES" is a concept originally devised for an elementary school audience but serves well as set of principles for saving rain forests and, on a broader scale, ecosystems around the world.
    • Teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests.
    • Restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down.
    • Encourage people to live in a way that doesn't hurt the environment.
    • Establish parks to protect rain forests and wildlife.
    • Support companies that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment.
• Join a conservation organization
• Recycle! It cleans the air and the water and saves natural resources
• Give an acre of rain forest as a gift

Conservation Organizations

So you have more ways of getting involved.

• The Rainforest Alliance
• The Rainforest Foundation
• Rainforest Action Network
• Greenpeace
• Woods Hole Research Center
• Rainforest Rescue
• Save the Rainforest
• Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations
• World Land Trust

References

1. ↑ Blue Planet Biomes http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/amazon.htm
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Rain Tree Group http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm
3. ↑ Tangley, Laura. "AMAZONIADRYING". National Wildlife 00280402, Vol. 44, No. 5 (Aug/Sep2006), pg. 32-42
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Rainforest Action Network http://www.ran.org
5. ↑ Greenpeace Seven Years to Save the Amazon http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/seven-years-to-save-the-amazon
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Amazonia http://www.amazonia.org.br/english/
7. ↑ World Wildlife Foundation http://worldwildlife.org/forests/overview.cfm
8. ↑ Greenpeace Amazon Rainforest http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/the-amazon-rainforest
9. ↑ Monastersky, Richard. "Hidden Threats Take Toll in Amazon". Science News, Vol. 155, No.15 (April 1999), pg. 228
10. ↑ Eustáquio J. Reis and Fernando A. Blanco. "Causes of the Brazilian Amazon Deforestation" http://www.nemesis.org.br/artigos/a0002.pdf
11. ↑ Center for International Forestry Research http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Mongabay Amazon Destruction http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html#infrastructure
13. ↑ Tierramerica Soy Threatens the Amazon http://www.tierramerica.net/english/2004/1009/iarticulo.shtml
14. ↑ Amazonia Soybeans: The New Threat to Brazilian Rainforest http://www.amazonia.org.br/english/noticias/noticia.cfm?id=92783
15. ↑ Amazonia Brazil Admits Amazon Rainforest is being Destroyed at near Record Rate http://www.amazonia.org.br/english/noticias/noticia.cfm?id=103897
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3} Amazonia Reforestation Project Implants Microchips in Trees http://www.amazonia.org.br/english/noticias/noticia.cfm?id=5649
17. ↑ Weber, John C. "Participatory Domestication of Agroforestry Trees: An Example from the Peruvian Amazon". Development in Practice, Vol. 11, No. 4 (August, 2001), pg. 425-433.
18. ↑ Sanchez,Pedro. "Amazon Basin Soils: Management for Continuous Crop Production". Science, Vol. 216, No. 4548 May, 1982), pg. 821-827.
19. ↑ ^19.0 19.1 Mongabay Tropical Rainforests: Saving What Remains http://rainforests.mongabay.com/1002.htm
20. ↑ PBS Journey into Amazonia http://www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/plants.html
21. ↑ ^21.0 21.1 Greenpeace Solutions http://archive.greenpeace.org/forests/forests_new/html/content/sol_amaz.html
22. ↑ Rubber Manufacturers Association http://www.rma.org/about_rma/rubber_faqs/
23. ↑ http://rainforests.mongabay.com/1001.htm

LMG Annotated Bibliography

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